The Betrayal
by Julie5
Summary: A bigger enemy than the horde exists on Etheria. Apathy and cowardice but the peoiple will learn they can no longer wear the robes of virtue and scorn as Adora brings the truth of war at the point of her sword
1. Default Chapter

Chapter 1; Racing and Reflection  
  
  
  
  
  
It was a cool summer evening under the light of three purple moons; a slight breeze stirred the air and most of the land lay silent- the gentle slap of foam capped waves to sandy shore almost lost to the darkness.  
  
Thump, thump, thidda-thump; sand moist with salty sea flew up as horses hooves pounded across a slumbering beach- one horse fast and free tore out across the landscape an arrow from deity's quiver straight and true veering neither left nor right. The ivory stallion with auburn hair was followed by one of a golden hue with fiery mane.  
  
Both carried a rider, each beautiful to behold. The white carried a woman, slender, tall, curved in a manner that drove men wild; her golden hair flew out behind her in tangled abandon, honey-spun waves caressed in moonglow splendor. Her cheeks were dusted with a rosy blush of joy as she strained with her mount for more speed. She wore a form fitting jumper of red leather with crimson gauntlets and calf length boots the same, beneath it she wore a white body suit to protect her from the elements. This woman marveled in her freedom, cherishing each second. Her firm lean muscles hugged tight to the sides of her horse.  
  
Not far behind a man rode urging his own mount to greater stride, seeking to close the distance between the two. His muscular form was well defined, his chest and torso rippled with sinuous grace, lean and hard as if carved from granite.  
  
Sweat glistened on his brow and moistened his mustache, a beaded line of perspiration dripped down his torso and another trailed down his back between his shoulder blades. His thick auburn hair, cropped at the neck, matched that of Arrow, his steed. A flamboyant red cape billowed out behind him and a rakish grin curled across his manly features.  
  
Nearly side by side the two made a striking pair racing along the beach with only the night to witness their reckless bravado. As the riders neared a stand of trees the horses began slowing till they came to a halt. A gentle laugh rang out into the cool night air, a feminine sound, soon joined by another this one deeper and masculine.  
  
"Beat you again Bow, when are you going to learn that Spirit is the fastest horse on the planet?"  
  
"I'll beat you one day Adora, the odds are in my favor, Spirit can't win every time- besides Arrow has almost perfected his timing- just you wait, he'll beat you yet."  
  
Adora laughed, "It's not me your horse has to beat, it's Spirit."  
  
Bow feigned a hangdog expression "Must I really cook your meals for another week!"  
  
"Stop whining Bow, remember you are part of the Great Rebellion, besides," she said, smiling cheekily, "a bets a bet, no welshing, I won fair and square." She then began building a small fire as Bow pulled out the cooking implements.  
  
He looked over at her and she smiled at him, a dazzling smile, he nearly forgot to breathe. For the past five years he had fought alongside this woman against the Horde to free their people and only now was he beginning to realize what a special woman Adora was. All those years mooning over She-Ra and hoping she would come to consider him as more than a friend.  
  
She never had.  
  
Then Adora met the Sea Hawk. Bow didn't know what separated them but it wounded Adora, deeply. Bow, a perpetual clown who liked to help others find the joy in themselves tried to cheer her; in so doing he realized what a good friend Adora was. They often rode their horses here along the beach, engaging in innocent flirtation. Bow loved the feeling of freedom he felt on the back of his horse. He knew Adora felt the same.  
  
"You know you're a great fighter and an awesome tactitian, I really don't understand why you're such a horrible cook?"  
  
"I guess my brother got all the culinary talent in the family, his spice bread is famous you know. And I'm not so bad. I can boil water." Bow laughed at her.  
  
"Adora what did they teach you as a child." He instantly realized his mistake. Adora didn't like speaking of her childhood. She had been raised by the horde. However it was too late to withdraw the statement. Bow cautiously glanced across the fire at Adora, she wasn't mad, she seemed lost in thought, a smile on her lips.  
  
"They trained me in many things as a child but cooking wasn't one of them."  
  
Bow, realizing he had an opportunity to learn more about her past, threw a couple of birds on a spit, put some herbs on them and left them to roast slowly in their own juices.  
  
Casually he asked, "what was it like, being raised by the Horde I mean? Were there any other children?"  
  
"Squadrons of them. Children are taken from their parents at a young age, generally at a ratio of ten per hundred each year, then trained and drilled to be troopers. The best go to horde world serving Horde Prime. The rest stay here and serve Hordak….except me. I was special. They trained me harder than any one else; I was the only girl in my squad- I learned later that there were other girls in other squads, but not mine. I had to be better than everyone else. Hordak came often, with Shadow Weaver- to watch my progress. I think Hordak was grooming me to be Force Captain before I was even out of my youth."  
  
"Why was he so hard on you?"  
  
"Because Bow, I was ensorcelled by Shadow Weavers spells. My loyalty was unquestioned. Also I was the daughter of his enemy. A trophy, I believe. My father defeated him and his army back on Eternia and I believe he enjoyed the idea of raising his enemy's daughter to be a force of evil. I even think he cared for me- like a puppy. He knew I had a very special destiny he simply could not foresee what it was."  
  
Bow laughed, "I bet he was pretty surprised to realize his most elite soldier was destined to lead the Great Rebellion." Instead of grinning as Bow had thought she would, Adora poked a stick into the flames and watched the sparks fly up into the sky.  
  
"Much of my childhood is fuzzy, I only recall pieces here and there, I know now that was because of Shadow Weavers spells, but one thing I do remember was being afraid all the time."  
  
"You, afraid?" Bow snorted derisively, "I don't believe it."  
  
"It's true Bow, I had to constantly be the best, yet each night I would lay down alone in my own room in the fright zone, away from the training barracks where the other children stayed. I would cry for a mother that never came. In my mind Shadow Weaver became my mother and Hordak my father. I lived for their approval."  
  
Bow was silent a minute, realizing how isolated Adora must have been as a child. He tried to imagine looking to Hordak for approval or ugh! Shadow Weaver. If anything could make his blood run cold it was her. He couldn't begin to comprehend. Fear however, was something he understood and could relate to well. He stood to gaze out over the sea, and leaned against a tree, the ruby heart which hung at the center of his chest sparkled in the velvet night and golden light cast by the crackling flames. His face was obscured by shadows.  
  
"I too know what it is like to be afraid. When the horde came to Etheria my father and mother resisted. They were farmers. They simply wanted to be left alone. Years went by with no problems, then one day for no reason at all troopers came to my home. My mother had been washing the clothes when my father ran into the house, his head was bloody, he was soaked with sweat. He told my mother to grab me and run for the woods. She did, but then instead of going to the woods we hid behind some bushes away from the yard. My father attacked a trooper with a scythe. They shot him with a stun gun. My mother cried out as my father fell. We were revealed." Bow paused a moment, his jaw clenching at the pain of remembrance.  
  
Adora held her eyes upon him. He continued. "I remember the smell of ginger mixed with a woman's fear; my mother often smelled like spice." He smiled wryly, "it was she that taught me to cook so well. The troopers shot at us but my mother shoved me towards the woods. She told me to run, run and don't stop. So I did. I made it to the woods before I realized she wasn't with me, I looked back towards our farm. All that was left was a pillar of smoke. My home was in ashes. I never saw either of my parents again."  
  
"How old were you Bow?"  
  
"I was twelve years old the day the Horde stole my family and my childhood. I vowed then and there never to submit. I would fight to be free as my parents had fought, and I would fight so that others would not have to endure the pain that I had."  
  
All was silent for a moment. Then Adora rose and walked over to Bow. She stood behind him. She lay her head upon his shoulder and put a arm around him.  
  
"Bow, I'm sorry for your past, children should never have to be afraid," she paused a moment, letting the comfort of her presence sink into his soul, "but if you burn my dinner I'm going to add a week to the deal." Laughing together they shared the meal in silence. After eating they spread their bedrolls on opposite sides of the fire. Adora lay down staring at the stars. Bow sitting on his bedroll began playing his harp.  
  
Music drifting sweetly on the wind deftly wrapped her senses around the haunting refrain, blending gently with the sound of surf, slowly she drifted into that land between slumber and wakefulness. Then it stopped. Bow bedded down, stoking the fire one more time to make sure it would last through the night. Adora turned to her side peering at him through long sooty lashes. Reaching up a hand she caressed the jewel in the middle of the Sword of Protection.  
  
"Bow…"  
  
"Hmmm?"  
  
"Do you think the fighting will ever end?" Silence.  
  
"I'm so tired of all the battles and the blood and the sacrifice."  
  
"War is bloody business Adora and freedom never comes without sacrifice." He was silent a moment, "Adora you've never killed…..have you?"  
  
"No, but I've lost friends and I've injured people, many may have died."  
  
"True, but always to defend the innocent. Its what we do. We are real life hero's."  
  
"Bow, I don't want to be a hero any more, I want to go home, I want my people free and I want to stop fighting for so many who won't lift a finger to fight for themselves."  
  
"Well Adora it's what we do you know, defend the downtrodden."  
  
"I know. I just wish there was a better way. Good night, Bow."  
  
"Night." 


	2. A new Hope and prelude to disaster

Chapter 2; A new Hope and prelude to disaster  
  
All was still by the sea; two slumbering humans were just beginning to rouse. The consciousness, quick as a thought shifted to the north. Brightmoon was just stirring, a new day was about to begin and the free had to work as hard as the enslaved, they merely had greater joy in life. The consciousness again shifted, this time far to the south, the dark turrets of the Fright Zone could be seen through those disembodied eyes. A slave transport was traveling down the road to Gunthor which lay to the East. The Eyes begin to withdraw, returning to their center carrying with them a warning to the mind of the woods.  
  
*********************  
  
  
  
Madame Razz awoke with a startled squawk. Noises outside her tent had the gray haired witch reaching for her hat and calling for her good friend Broom.  
  
"Broom, Brooom, oh dear, where is he? Brooom!"  
  
  
  
"Right here Madame, stop your hollerin' it's givin' me a headache." A talking broom followed by three short lavender persons garbed in green entered. These were the twiggets. Guardians of the Whispering woods.  
  
There was Sprag, a gangly little guy with a nasally voice and a lions heart, the sweet and gentle Spiritina and the rounded figure of the mischievous Sprocket.  
  
"We did as you asked Madame," said Sprag, "we guarded you all night."  
  
"We didn't sleep at all." From Spiritina.  
  
"And boy are we tired, did you see anything at all?" Grouched Sprocket.  
  
"Oh dear, shh, we mustn't speak too loudly of our secret. No one must even suspect what I really am or we could all be in grave danger! And yes, I did see something. I must warn Adora."  
  
******************************  
  
"Alright people we've a lot to cover this morning and not much time. Peek-a-Blue I need you, report." Adora, leader of the Great Rebellion, stood at the head of the council of rebels. Not many were there that morning but only because their duties lay elsewhere.  
  
A beautiful young woman with blue hair that fell in gentle curls across her shoulders and a fan of luminous peacock feathers- each sporting a different eye on her back- stepped forward.  
  
"Adora farmer Corliss will be making an early delivery, he'll be giving supplies to us today instead of next week. The Horde tax collector is coming to Grendell. He doesn't want to look suspicious by disappearing."  
  
"Alright then, take Cowl and three of the men from Drile with you, it will be their group that receives the foodstuffs from Corliss this time." Just then Madame Razz followed by Broom and the twiggetts came into the glade.  
  
"Madame, good to see you."  
  
"You too Adora. Sweetie have you been eating right, you look so thin?"  
  
Adora laughed, "I'm eating much better now that Bow is doing the cooking for me."  
  
Just then a dainty hand touched her shoulder, catching Adora's attention. She turned drawing her brows together in a fierce manner. She was the leader of the rebels; she did not like the disrespect of someone laying their hands on her. Then she saw it was Peek-a-blue and she relaxed, the poor girl was shy enough she wouldn't add to her problem by displaying any of the annoyance she felt. This wasn't really an organized military after all.  
  
"Peeka, what can I do for you, did we miss something?"  
  
  
  
"No, Adora, but I wanted you aware. I have been feeling strange, it is as if the shadows are speaking to me, my eyes gaze into the darkness and it seems to come alive." Adora drew her brows together again, this time in concern.  
  
"Are you alright, what does it mean?"  
  
"It is very rare, but once a generation someone is chosen to walk with the spirits and view the crossroads of tomorrow." Adora appeared confused but rather than say anything she allowed Peek-a-blue to explain. "It means I am to become the holy woman of my people, see glimpses of the future, I will see not just one path the future may take but many paths that yet may be."  
  
"You believe this is what is happening to you?"  
  
"Yes. I know the signs and have experienced all of them…. But Adora I am frightened." Adora lay a comforting arm on Peeka's shoulder.  
  
"Why Peeka, this is wonderful, you will become a symbol of hope to your people and  
  
a greater help to the rebellion than you already are, why should you fear your power rather than embrace it?"  
  
"Because Adora," Peek-a-blue whispered in trepidation, "I have seen glimpses of the future."  
  
"What have you seen?" Adora asked. Peek-a-blue looked her straight in the eyes, her own shining with troubled concern.  
  
"I saw you Adora, much of it was in shadows but I sensed something…"  
  
"What, Peeka?"  
  
"I sensed peril Adora, that's all." Adora heaved a frustrated sigh.  
  
"Alright. I'll have to let it go for now, you tell me if you learn anything more." She then focused her attention back on Madame who was frowning at Peek-a-Blue's departing back.  
  
"A holy woman for the peacock people. That could be both good or bad."  
  
"What do you mean Madame?"  
  
"She will become as a goddess to her people, their spiritual leader, but her gift is one fraught with burden, a double edged sword, so to speak."  
  
"Explain."  
  
"Well, it's like staring down a road and coming to a crossroads with many divergences and seeing the consequences of choosing each direction; often she may be unsure which road is the best road."  
  
"Hmm, in a war where delay can be fatal and indecision can cost lives that isn't exactly an ideal situation. Sounds as if her journey's going to be quite interesting. Should we worry?" Adora queried arching a graceful blond brow.  
  
"It's too soon to tell." Madame responded, lips pursed in contemplation.  
  
"Madame," Adora said brusquely changing the subject, "I need you to go to Mysticor. Speak with Castaspella about our new ally count, also contact Frosta, ask about things in the north. It's been too long since we heard from the Empress of Ice Mountain and I worry. Chill Castle is so far from the Whispering Woods that if Hordak were to mount an attack it would be too late to stop them by the time we got word. If everythings okay tell her a word from the north now and then would be welcome."  
  
Just then a small child came waddling into Adora, she fell on her bottom, a stunned look on her tiny face, curling her little hands into fists she stuck out her bottom lip as she screwed up her face, preparing to cry. Adora scooped the chubby child into her arms, tapping her on the nose, smiling tenderly. A haphazard array of teeth showed as the child's scowl changed to a friendly smile.  
  
"No crying here little one, a rebel doesn't cry, they fight, and then the Horde cries, wee, wee, wee, all the way home to Horde world." Adora laughed as the child grabbed a fistful of her hair, stuffing it into its mouth.  
  
Still holding the child she focused her attention on Glimmer and Bow who were trying not to stare. This was a side of Adora people rarely saw. She was sweet and beautiful and strong a gentle friend and a ruthless leader who demanded perfection only because that was what she delivered. Her kindness was nothing new, however five years of constant battle had hardened her, it had hardened them all. But that disappeared when Adora held a child. She became a young woman again as if the weight of the world did not rest on her slim shoulders. She focused on her companions.  
  
"Bow you and Glimmer will accompany me as I try to rouse the town of Strathmoore to our cause. If we can cut off the supply of ore that they mine then the horde will be down to only two metal producing towns which will then cut the number of robots and battle-tanks they can build to send after us."  
  
The child gurgled and Adora rubbed her nose to its. "You are too sweet! Yes you are! You're going to be free someday, just you wait, Auntie Adora will fix it, yes she will!"  
  
"Neurisse!" A woman's shout came from the trees. "There you are, forgive me Adora, I was picking berries for our noon meal and she wandered off."  
  
"No problem, your from Wanreth right?"  
  
"Yes ma'am. She-ra saved us from Battlebots Darkcamp. We would have all been  
  
used in his genetic experiments if she hadn't freed us."  
  
"Yes, that's true, it would have been easier had your people stood with her and fought for their own freedom instead of having She-ra fight for them." Adora's voice was heavy with accusation. Bow and Glimmer both looked at her their eyes widening in alarm. The woman stared at the ground in shame.  
  
"We didn't realize what life under the Horde meant, we just wanted peace."  
  
"That's all any of us want. Unfortunately it's people like you who keep us from getting it."  
  
"Adora! That's not fair-"  
  
Adora turned her fierce regard on Bow, "No Bow, what's not fair is that She-ra had to fight to free a people who wouldn't even help themselves."  
  
"But they are with us now, don't be so hard on them."  
  
"Bow, I have a responsibility to the people who will fight, so does She-Ra but we spend so much time helping those who won't, we have made no headway in this war for five years." She turned back to the girl who was clutching her child to her chest unable to look up for fear of incurring more disapproval. "Woman you are dismissed, go to your people and tell them how Adora and the rebels fight for your freedom and that of your children while you do nothing towards that goal." The woman quickly walked away, her face red with embarrassment, unable to deny the harsh reality of Adora's accusations.  
  
"Dearie, I understand your frustration, but you can't be so hard on them. People make mistakes, they have joined now, show a little forgiveness."  
  
  
  
  
  
Adora looked Madame in the eyes, her own blue orbs shimmering fiercely with barely suppressed ire.  
  
"Madame I showed plenty of forgiveness when She-Ra rescued them and led them to the woods for safety. If people would just learn from these mistakes I could afford to be gentler. But people don't so I can't. We gave them sanctuary. They must earn anything else." Madame nodded her eyes lowering in understanding, then they snapped up.  
  
"Oh dear I almost forgot! Sweetie there's trouble in Gunthor, a horde slave transport is picking the town clean, they'll be no one left by evening." Adora groaned.  
  
"I'm on it Madame, Looks as if Strathmoore will have to wait guys. Bow, Glimmer, with me." Glimmer doubled with Adora on Spirit while Bow mounted Arrow and they rode out to Gunthor. 


	3. Freedom vs. Freewill

Chapter 3; Freedom vs. Freewill  
  
  
  
Catra grimaced with distaste as she went down the line of villagers standing before her. They were a weak and pathetic lot. They smelled as well. Of sweat and manure. Her upper lip curled in disdain and she growled softly. She hated farmers.  
  
"Rowww, is this the best you could do?" she purred to Mantenna.  
  
"Leech is rounding up the rest of them right now force captainnnn'." He rumbled back in his irritating metallic whine.  
  
"Very well, hmmm." She went down the line sizing each villager by musculature and health, they were 'recruiting' workers for the mines of Mondor. Many had died recently due to poor living conditions but the demand for the Etherium they extracted had not decreased simply because the number of workers had.  
  
Hordak had been very explicit in telling her to take only the strongest specimens, leaving the rest to harvest foodstuffs the town produced to feed his troops. Pointing to a group of six men standing shoulder to shoulder she gestured that they should be taken and continued down the line. A slight smile parting her lips as she listened to the wails of a woman standing nearby.  
  
A particularly large lad wouldn't look up at her so she grasped him by the chin and forced him to. He must have just gone through his growth spurt. The first stages of manhood were upon him. He wouldn't last a year in the mines with those fine lines. His back arched gracefully and though his muscles were not extreme he was molded of fine sinews with no ounce wasted to fat. He was beautiful. If allowed to grow to manhood here he'd become an exceptionally good looking young man.  
  
In the mines his back would grow stooped from endless days of heavy labor and his eyesight weak from the constant dark. She looked into his eyes. He had a fire there. It reminded her of the Sea Hawk, a man she had once desired for herself.  
  
Her smile slipped and she gestured that they take him as well. That fire would die soon. The slave drivers would extinguish it quickly.  
  
"Nooooo!" This came from a young, blond peasant woman in a blue tunic. "Please I beg you, don't send him to the mines! He's just a boy!" Catra's smile returned and she purred in delight. She loved toying with a victim.  
  
"Rowww, would you like to go in his place, I'd be purrfectly willing to strike a bargain with you." The woman looked at her son hopelessly, tears streaming down her face. Her son shook his head negatively.  
  
"Mother I'll be fine, you care for Julie, she needs her mother." Sniffling softly in anguished protest the woman backed away, but not before shooting Catra a venomous look of pure hatred. Catra's patience, always in short supply snapped and she reached out, grabbing the woman by her hair and shoving her towards the troopers.  
  
"Guards, take this one too," then she turned her menacing gaze on the crowd, "let that be a lesson to you all. Never question the wisdom of the Horde again." She began to walk away when a familiar voice stopped her cold.  
  
"Now, now, that's a bad pussycat, why don't you let the nice people go." Catra whirled around her emerald eyes narrowing to slits of menace. Adora, flanked by two of her rebel friends, the succulent Bow and that annoying brat, princess Glimmer of Brightmoon.  
  
"Troops! Get them!" Catra lowered her mask and her blood burned with liquid heat as she transformed.  
  
"I've got her Adora," shouted Glimmer, "you free the villagers!"  
  
  
  
"Right." Adora sped off towards the transport. Glimmer found her center, where the magic slept nestled inside her, then forcing it outward in a burst of hyper-focused concentrated energy, lavender beams writhed their way around Catra's cat form lifting her high and hurling her thirty feet through the air into a stack of ale barrels. Catra lay there, dazed, in the dirt, struggling to regain her wind and reorient herself. Glimmer smiled slightly.  
  
Mantenna on the other hand shot out his insectiod yellow eyes and began aiming a red beam at her making her lightheaded. His tinny laughter echoed in her ears as she fought to stand.  
  
"My balance distortion ray will make you helpless, heee-hee-hee!"  
  
"I don't think so bughead! Not while I am around to stop you." Bow lifted his sleeping powder arrow taking swift aim at Mantenna's face before firing. The Pouch burst on impact, knocking Mantenna to the ground, he weaved a bit before collapsing unconscious.  
  
Bow went to tie him up.  
  
Glimmer went after Catra who was still recovering in her feline form, as Glimmer ran over to Catra a saucy smile flashed across her face. Passing a booth belonging to a fishmonger she grabbed one of the papers used to wrap fish in and rolled it into a tight cone. Coming alongside Catra she gave the violet panther a hard whack on the nose.  
  
"Bad kitty, bad girl. No more slaves, no more." Catra sneezed violently until her mask flew off. Glimmer smacked her again for good measure as she transformed back into a human. It slapped Catra smack in the center of her face, she howled in rage and would have leapt at her had Glimmer done nothing, but with the last of her power Glimmer released another wave of telekinetic energy lifting Catra and hurling her the fifty yards to the slave transport, slamming her against the metal hull. Catra slumped, unconscious, to the ground.  
  
Meanwhile Adora ran over to the two troopers loading people onto the slave transporter. One took aim and fired at her twice. She dove to the ground and rolled, never ceasing her momentum as she rose to her feet and continued running.  
  
Before he could get off another shot she slid to the ground, rolling onto her back and kicking the freeze ray out of his stunned hand with one foot, then bringing it down swiftly and using a scissor-like motion, slammed her leg into the front of his ankles while slapping the other one into the back of his knees, causing him to fall. She grabbed his shoulders as leverage as he went down to shoot her up quickly and knock the stun gun out of the other guard's hand. He reached for her but she ducked while drawing her sword which she slammed, flatside, into the back of his head. The tincan went down and did not get up.  
  
Sheathing her sword she grabbed his stun gun and turned to the people who were now fleeing in all directions. Her gaze peered out over the crowd, searching for her friends when she spotted a disgustingly thick- lipped blue face staring at her.  
  
Leech.  
  
As soon as she spotted him the coward turned to run. She tried to get a shot off over the crowd but the people kept getting in her way. Cursing softly she used the gun to shove people aside as she tore off after him.  
  
Bow had just finished tying up Catra when he saw Adora shoot by him in a blaze of scarlet. "Glimmer you watch these two while I help Adora." Then he ran off after her.  
  
Adora saw Leech duck down an alley just ahead so she renewed her speed and followed him knowing that the alley dead-ended. Bow was right on her heels. They had him cornered.  
  
  
  
  
  
They had him cornered. As soon as Adora saw him Leech knew he was in trouble. Sneak attacks were his specialty. If he could get behind a person and stick his suckers to their head he could absorb their neurological energy and make it his own. The more powerful the person, the sweeter the Hi; he knew Adora would be sweet indeed, but he'd never get a hold of her in a fair fight.  
  
So he ran.  
  
Sweat rolled off his blue wrinkled form in malodorous waves and dribble spilled from his mouth as he contemplated the wall in front of him. Adora would have him soon.  
  
Once again she would conquer him and he would be humiliated in the eyes of his people and the horde and worse Hordak would punish him. Hordaks punishments were often painful and sometimes meant loss of a specific body part and or cybernetic implant. He knew Adora wouldn't kill him, he sometimes wished she would.  
  
Almost.  
  
Adora came racing around the corner. Knowing it was useless Leech leapt at her anyway. She fired the stunner. He fell to the ground unable to move but hearing everything.  
  
"Well Adora, we make a pretty good team, don't we?"  
  
Adora laughed lightly, "yes Bow we do indeed, although taking down a goon like Leech is hardly worthy of a team effort. Besides," she smirked, "you didn't do anything." Leech seethed. They were laughing at him.  
  
"I guess your right, ol' suckerpuss didn't even put up much of a fight, actually I'm kinda' disappointed."  
  
"Not me," Adora remarked, the disdain in her voice echoing in his ears, "Leech did exactly as I expected. He never does anything on his own. He's a coward through and through and doesn't have an original thought in his head not put there by his commander. Spiritina could take him, on a bad day, without breaking a sweat- so long as he didn't sneak up on her." They both laughed.  
  
Leech burned with shame and indignation. To be a joke, a laughingstock to his enemies was bad enough, but to have them speak so as if he couldn't hear them when he was right there enraged him. Every time he had ever been humiliated by Adora or the rebels and then punished by Hordak flashed through his brain like molten lead being poured on an open wound. He began to quiver with rage. Hordak was going to hurt him when he returned to the fright zone. There was no escaping that. The others would be punished but they had not run. He would be hurt and these rebels were laughing. He'd show them. First chance he got he would show them just how original Leech could be.  
  
"What should we do with him?" Bow asked as they contemplated their prisoner.  
  
"Just stick him with the others I suppose." Adora said. "He can pilot the slave transport back to the fright zone after Glimmer disables the weapons systems."  
  
"Should we tie him up?" Asked Bow frowning.  
  
"No, if we hold a stun gun on him and keep it pointed at his yellow back, we can walk him back to the transporter like a doggie on a leash." Bow frowned not approving, but unwilling to voice his dissent in front of their captive.  
  
"As you wish Adora. Get up you sniveling bottomfeeder." Bow snapped as he drew back his foot and kicked him in the stomach. Slowly and painfully Leech rose to his feet. He burned with shame and anger but did exactly as Adora had said he would. Everything would have proceeded from there nicely except for one thing.  
  
As the townspeople looked on in glee from the sidelines they thought the danger was over and they cheered to see the rebels lead such a villain to the transport so easily. A small boy ran over to Adora and threw his arms around her leg. Adora wobbled and lowered her gaze to the child, Leech spun around and grasping the child at the temples his suckers expanded and began to glow.  
  
"Come no closer rebel scum. If you shoot me I will drain the life from this boys body and you will be responsible for his death. It doesn't take much, just a little added focus to one thought and he'll be dead in a second!" He began to make gleeful sucking sounds assured of his triumph. "You two drop your weapons and stay right here I'm leaving. You will find the boy at the edge of town, maybe alive, maybe not."  
  
He laughed a hateful and revolting sound, slobber issuing offensively from his fanged orifice. "Who's the trained doggie now?! Who's too afrfrfraid now! Who doesn't do anything on his own?!" He laughed evilly taking the boy and heading away. Then he rounded a corner and was out of sight.  
  
A woman began wailing, why did they always do that? Bow and Adora made eye contact, both nodding slightly, then Adora ran to a building front and began to scale the walls as Bow ran after Leech.  
  
Adora wanted to change to She-ra but there was no time, she had to reach that boy. She'd been a fool to show mercy to that wretch Leech. Now an innocent might suffer because of her. Effortlessly Adora leapt from rooftop to rooftop, her mind awash in recriminations. They shouldn't have taunted him. He was in a rage now, there was no telling what he might do. He had obviously taken exception to their disparaging remarks about his character but to harm a child was beyond the pale. Adora had never wanted to kill before but if Leech hurt that child because of her she would cut him open herself. She made it to the last building and flipped to the ground and began running to the woods. Leech was just disappearing but it wasn't him she was after.  
  
It was the body of the fallen boy.  
  
He lay on the ground, his face drained of color, his limbs motionless, still as death. Panic engulfed her as she fell to the ground, searing her lungs with white agony as she felt for a pulse she didn't really expect to be there. There was one but it was thready and weak. Bow skidded to a halt beside her.  
  
"Where's Leech!" He demanded out of breath.  
  
"Don't worry about him! Bow run back and fetch the healer quickly!" His Hazel eyes widened as they took in the boys pallor.  
  
"Is he-"  
  
"Bow! Hurry, Go now! His life depends on your speed!" Bow didn't hesitate a moment longer. He ran as if the Horde Master himself were at his heels. Adora didn't even bother to wait until he was out of sight.  
  
She raised her sword above her head, its glinting tip piercing the golden sky in starlit defiance.  
  
"For the Honor, Of Grayskull" A golden aurora of shimmering sparks flared to life all around her, creating a vortex of awesome power, swirling energy in violent waves. Slowly her sword lowered as a vacuum inside of her opened up to swallow Adora, all frail and weak and full of doubts, to release the mighty warrior within.  
  
And She burst into blazing battle-glory being. A golden Valkyrie from the Norse myths of her mothers home world Earth. She was legend and dream and power and hope and wonder given form.  
  
"I am She-ra!"  
  
  
  
The whole universe exploded in a blazing shower of power, the vacuum disappeared with Adora and She-ra stood in her place. Beautiful, calm, focused, deadly. But She-ra was more than simply a powerful warrior.  
  
Being woman her heart was full of endless compassion and love. She was a gifted healer and empath. She lay her hands on the boy's head. Tears flowing unchecked and unquenched from sapphire eyes as she absorbed his pain and made it her own.  
  
He was nearly dead.  
  
It was a miracle he lived even now. She-ra fought that fight that no one wins with every ounce of her existence as she knocked death away from the boy and pulled his soul back from that dark brink. A soft moan issued from her throat. Her head was afire, it burned all the way to the veins within.  
  
"For…the…honor of….Grey..skull…" The pain slowly began to ebb to a dull throb then nothing. She-ra looked down. The boy's color had returned to normal and he was breathing deeply. He had not awakened but she knew he was well.  
  
No one had appeared yet. Raising her sword yet again she changed back into Adora then picked the child's limp form up from the ground and began walking back to town. Bow met her halfway back, the boy's mother and a healer at his side, Glimmer and a mob of concerned citizens at his back. At the sight of her walking, with the boy hanging limply in her arms, the mother assuming the worst collapsed to the ground shrieking in anguished sorrow.  
  
Bow gazed at Adora his eyes begging her to deny it. She didn't look at him, she went straight to the grief stricken woman's side.  
  
"It's alright. She-ra saved him." The woman's sobbing intensified she all but snatched the child from Adora and clutching him tightly to her breast she began rocking him back and forth, kissing his brow.  
  
Adora stood, her face a cool mask of barely contained rage as she faced the people of Gunthor. A town which had refused to aid the rebellion either with supplies or volunteers. Her steely voice rang out into the now ever darkening evening, cold and unflinching and unforgiving.  
  
"See. This is what serving the Horde has cost you. Loyalty to the Horde gains you nothing, at least siding with us you fight for a chance to grant your children and their children freedom."  
  
  
  
  
  
"We thank you for saving us, " an old man whom Adora knew led the town stepped forward to act as their voice, "but we again say we will not risk our lives or our town to help you. Please understand, we are afraid. We merely want peace." Adora gazed at him. Mute with shock. She gazed stricken across the crowd. Not many would meet her eyes. Fury coursed through her.  
  
"Is this peace!" She cried, her arm making a wide sweeping gesture over the woman and her child. "Is this what you all want, to live with the fear that some angry Hordesman will try to steal the lives of your children?! Etherians, awake. You do not want peace. You seek to be slaves! You seek to sacrifice your children to the craven appetites of the Horde because you're too afraid to fight for what's important. This is not peace!" Not one person would look at her a few started to walk away.  
  
Adora drew her sword.  
  
The metallic hiss of metal against leather caused many to look over and many were shocked as she raised the sword above her head in a threatening gesture. In a calm and gentle voice belying the cold light in her eyes she softly spoke.  
  
"Step aside ma'am. I need to have a clean stroke." The crowd gasped. Bows mouth dropped open, his eyes widening in absolute shock. Glimmers face whitened. Whimpering the woman clutched her son tighter to her chest.  
  
"Ma'am, move aside please, believe me this is for the best."  
  
"Adora stop, this is madness-" Bow began, but Adora turned on him a look so feral that he nearly bit his tongue, he stepped back unsure what to do. She was his leader but he would not allow her to hurt that child. He pulled an arrow from his quiver and prepared to fire on a woman who was dearer to his heart than any he had known for many years.  
  
  
  
"Bow, it's better this way," Adora spoke gently in a voice awful with its quiet conviction, "don't you understand. I offer him a quick death. Clean and easy. These people" and she spat the word as if it befouled her mouth, "they offer him a life without hope, without freedom, without joy. They will kill him a little bit at a time. It is so much uglier that way." Bow spoke just as gently.  
  
"It is their village Adora and their choice to make not yours."  
  
"But it's the wrong choice!" She flared.  
  
"But theirs. Not yours." Bows tone was firm. He pulled back his arrow getting a bead on her throat. Perspiration breaking out across his forehead to drip down his cheek. 'By the Ancients,' Bow prayed to himself, 'Adora, don't make me do this!'  
  
Adora's arm lowered slightly. She reached down with her free hand to caress the sleeping child's cheek. The mother whimpered but made no move to stop her. There was a new sadness in Adora's eyes behind her fury.  
  
"Very well. So be it." Bow breathed a sigh of relief only to choke on it as she whirled around and pointed her sword at the hushed crowd.  
  
"You're all sheep." She said it softly with great sorrow but her voice gained in volume as she continued. "Bow is right it is your choice. To be free or to be sheep. Very well. I leave you all to your peace. The Rebellion will never again aid even one person from this village. She-ra will never again aid this village. You are all dead. And not one drop of rebel blood will be shed, not one tear will be cried and not one wink of sleep will be lost pondering the fate of the animated corpses of Gunthor, for we know your fate."  
  
She paused for effect, giving the people time to absorb her words before continuing.  
  
"You are the sheep to be slaughtered on Hordaks throne, your blood shall color the banner of tyranny he waves over the land. It is over." Total silence greeted her proclamation. She sheathed her sword and gestured for Bow and Glimmer to follow her, which they did.  
  
In silence they mounted their horses and headed back to camp. Each one lost in troubled thoughts. 


	4. A Leaders Pain

Chapter 4; A Leaders pain  
  
"I know, your both thinking I'm crazy. Adora's gone mad! Don't think I can't here you thinking that. As a matter of fact Bow, you and Glimmer are thinking so loudly it's making my brain hurt. So stop it. Thinking I mean." They were nearly to the woods and the silence was becoming oppressive.  
  
"Adora," Glimmer interjected in a quiet tone, "I think there's been enough of that going on today. Not thinking- I mean." Adora stopped her horse. Her back going rigid with indignation. Bow brought Arrow to a halt, looking at Adora curiously.  
  
"Get off." She snapped at Glimmer, her tone, so cold it gave him goose bumps.  
  
"What?" Glimmer questioned in startlement.  
  
"Get your fuchsia ass off my horse so I can kick it." Glimmer dismounted quickly, gazing warily at Adora as she did the same.  
  
  
  
Bow backed Arrow up, smirking slightly. He didn't want to miss one moment of this; these two strong-willed women seldom argued but when they did they were a magnificent sight to behold, eyes flashing wildly, breasts heaving with passion. Never had they come to blows; however Glimmer was spoiling for a fight and it appeared as if Adora was more than happy to oblige her.  
  
If they actually got physical he might just have to separate them. By stepping between them.  
  
By the ancients a dream come true!  
  
Of course only after they engaged in a brief struggle of flying hair and straining muscles- for their own good of course, merely to work it out of their system.  
  
He wanted to watch.  
  
Wrestling these two luscious women to the ground would be a challenge, but one he could happily rise to with ease. Bow loved strong beautiful women. Bow loved to wrestle. Bow was really looking forward to wrestling these two strong beautiful women.  
  
He couldn't think of one man on the planet who wouldn't be.  
  
Adora started stalking toward Glimmer- then she changed her mind, turned around and headed in the opposite direction. She had only walked a few feet when she stopped as if to gather her thoughts. She then turned around so that Bow and Glimmer could see her face. Her eyes were shining with unshed tears that refused to fall.  
  
"Do you think I was wrong?"  
  
"Yes!" This from both Bow and Glimmer. Adora lifted her chin, placed her hands on her hips and spread her legs apart, assuming a defiant stance.  
  
"Why? Explain to me your logic- you first Glimmer." Bow's shoulders slumped, obviously this was to be a battle with words alone. He sighed. No one could blame him for wishing.  
  
Glimmer tossed her pink hair over her shoulder and her brows came together in anger. "We're the Great Rebellion, the people's champions. We fight to help those in need wherever and whenever we can. Whether they help us or not we are dedicated to serving the greater good and freeing all the people of Etheria from the Horde, not just the ones we happen to like! And you pulled your sword on a child Adora. What were you thinking! We champion good, we don't slaughter children." Glimmer's voice was brimming with hostility and bewildered resentment. Adora swallowed convulsively before raising her chin another notch.  
  
"And you, Bow. Explain why I was wrong."  
  
With a total absence of hostility and gentle patience as though instructing a recalcitrant child Bow explained his reasoning. "Adora, you can't force people to fight. Even if it is for their own good. They are not children. They must choose for themselves and they have. Just because they are not willing to fight with us does not mean we throw them to the wolves. They are our people. They are simply frightened and with good cause. We have fought the Horde for five years now. We are barely holding the line. The people of Drile gave up their entire town, their lives as normal people and all their possessions to be free. You can't expect every other town to be willing to do the same. It's not realistic. Holding your sword to a child's throat is only going to make the villagers scared of us, not sympathetic to our cause." Adora's eyes flashed.  
  
"You both sound like children. Do you think this is a game? Every day we fight to free our world from a tyrant. A tyrant whose underlings are willing to harm innocent children to get what they want! Tell me Glimmer, do you want to be a hero or do you want freedom?"  
  
"Adora that's ridiculous I want to be free."  
  
"Then stop trying to be a hero- worse yet stop trying to be a savior! We are the Great Rebellion, we are fighting to free our people. An impossible task if those same people don't want their freedom. Tell me what is the greater good here Glimmer? Rescuing people time and again from the same mistakes or letting them suffer the consequences of their choices? Thereby learning from them and not making the same mistake time and again. And Bow you are sooo right, I can't force these people to make the right choice but I can make sure that my people don't get hurt or killed defending those people who made the wrong choice. They are adults Bow, and they must learn to accept responsibility for their actions- or inaction- and live with the results however unpleasant. That is part of being an adult." She paused to take a breath before continuing.  
  
"For the past five years we have fought Hordak and his goons and merely held the line. That is because Hordak knows how to fight a war. He knows how to accept one loss to prevent a greater one. He understands that in a war you must sacrifice some things in order to win. The people of Drile know this as well. But you two just can't seem to get that. We can't be watching everybody's back all the time or else we are going to get a sword in our own. If we would all stand together as one people on one world under a single banner of freedom, we could drive the Horde from our planet, but we fight a bigger monster then the Horde or Hordack or even Horde Prime. We fight the people themselves. The very people we want to free fight us every step of the way. And She-ra or the rebels are always there to bail them out of trouble in the nick of time, just in time for those people to say, 'thanks so much for the rescue, glad your not dead don't let the door hit you in the tail on your way out'. Bow you said it is not realistic of me to believe that every town would be willing to give up all their possessions like Drile. I say to you that it is not realistic to expect we will win this war if they are not. The people are afraid. Ha! So am I, do you know what of?"  
  
Bow and Glimmer were staring at her with reluctant understanding if not total agreement.  
  
Finally Bow cleared his throat, "I'm almost afraid to find out. What are you afraid of Adora?" Adora's eyes met his, shimmering in their cerulean depths he sensed her plea for understanding.  
  
"I am afraid of dying. Of growing old and dying and my planet and her people still in chains. Worse I am afraid of falling in battle and leaving the Horde the rulers of my home. This is not the legacy I want to leave my children Bow. But every time we put our lives or the lives of those willing to fight to be free on the wire for those who won't fight that is exactly what we risk."  
  
"Adora I think I understand but you still can't just abandon our people. In time they will learn they too want to be free."  
  
"Bow, you beautiful fool, we don't have time. We are a small force. The Horde already rules two thirds of Etheria. He's already brainwashing the next generation of children to accept his rule. We have to push the line, not hold it. The only way to do that is let some people fall. If they won't join us let them live under Horde rule. Once their freedom is gone they will realize how precious it is, then maybe they will be willing to fight and bleed for it at our side instead of standing at our backs and not risking their own."  
  
Glimmer interrupted angrily, "You still haven't explained why you were going to kill that child." Adora drew her sword, Glimmer raised her arms reflexively ready to teleport to safety but Adora hurled the sword into the dirt at her feet.  
  
"If you actually believe I would murder a child then you had better pick up that sword and run me through because you definitely don't want me leading your rebellion." Glimmers eyes clouded in confusion.  
  
"I don't understand."  
  
"It was a completely calculated and thought out action. Right down to my voice intonations. I was trying to make the people of Gunthor see how important it is to fight for freedom, if not for themselves then for their children. Obviously I miscalculated. I thought they would feel as I do; that a life as a slave is worse than death and no life at all. I was mistaken. I see now the flaw in my logic."  
  
"And that is?" Bow asked, dubiously.  
  
"They have never been slaves." She whispered softly. "I was. They don't understand what it means to have no freedom. I do. I lived without it for twenty-one years." Her statement was met with silence. Heaving a sigh, Glimmer picked up Adora's sword and offered it up to her.  
  
"You know more about war than I ever will, you were raised with it. I only know what I feel. I was wrong and I'm sorry. Please lead us again." Adora took the sword then mounted Spirit in one swift motion.  
  
"Glimmer, never apologize for questioning or following your heart- However I do feel I deserve an ounce of faith- then again I'd hate to think I was leading a bunch of sheep."  
  
"Yeah, Adora, what exactly are sheep?" Bow asked, his brow furrowed in puzzlement. Adora smiled.  
  
"Animals of Earth and not to bright, as they are easily led. No, you my dear friends are not sheep." She then held out her arm to Glimmer who smiled as she took it and mounted behind her.  
  
"You know, you never did kick my fuchsia-"  
  
"Glimmer," Bow said trying to keep a straight face, "don't go there. She'll eat you alive."  
  
That evening a full council was called. Queen Angella, Castaspella, Madame Razz and the twiggets were there as well as Frosta, Peek-a-Blue, Flutterina, Bow and Glimmer, Cowl and a representative from each of the twelve camps throughout the whispering woods and finally, Dirge, a representative from the troll king Ahgo of Spikeheart.  
  
Adora briefed them on what happened in Gunthor, explaining as best she could her reasons. There was a general outcry over the new change in tactics but Queen Angella and Castaspella both upheld her position. With the rulers of the two largest free kingdoms on Etheria backing her as well as the support of the notably absent She-ra the rest of the people soon fell in line if not totally agreeing with it, at least supporting it. There was outrage over what Leech had done and general praise for the way the three had handled themselves, then each member was called to give an accounting of what was happening in their respective regimes.  
  
The camps were doing fine, they were rationing the food they had, sharing with those in need but more supplies were desperately needed.  
  
Queen Angella was adamant about lending support to the rebels in the form of more foodstuffs as well as clothes and blankets and temporary shelters and medicine for the wounded. Castaspella was willing to render aid as well. She was also there to report some personally disturbing news to Adora.  
  
"I am in need of an apprentice." She announced, her gentle voice whisper soft. "A female, adept in all things scholarly and willing to work hard. I do not offer a life of ease or leisure, rather one of intense study and great trials and hardship, however the pros of this position far outweigh the cons. I need interested applicants to see me in the halls of knowledge back at Mysticor. I will screen them to see if they are worthy, please pass the news to your people." Adora frowned thoughtfully.  
  
"Where's Ariel?"  
  
Castaspella turned her fathomless mahogany eyes to Adora, they were filled with sorrow. "She has found another path. She has chosen to take to the seas with a man I believe you once admired. She is with the Sea Hawk."  
  
  
  
Adora felt her breath catch, her world spun and she grasped the table for support. He had promised to wait for her. She hadn't seen him in three years but he had promised. It took her a moment but the world righted itself and she was eventually able to raise her eyes to meet Castaspella's.  
  
"I am, of course, happy for them both. I admire the Sea Hawk for his courage and his honor."  
  
"I have perilous news from the north Adora." Adora snapped her eyes to Frosta. An intimidating woman with great presence she was garbed in blue.  
  
  
  
She wore deep cerulean leggings and a short dress of pale azure that sparkled with real ice, frozen forever in time by some magic known only to the Empress of Ice Mountain herself. Attached to her shoulders a pale periwinkle cape hung gracefully, fluttering gently in the evening breeze. She wore gauntlets of the same hue with ivory gloves extending to her elbows. Her entire outfit was lined in the fur of snow-hare. Eyes the sweet blue of midnight with a hint of lavender in their depths sparkled with sober wisdom. She wore the mantle of power easily as one born to it Tall and slim and lean and appearing every inch a queen, her mien was hardened by sorrowful frustration.  
  
"What is it my Lady?" Adora queried respectfully.  
  
"There is to be war. Between my People and the Sulkies. King Narwa is ill. His son has assumed the throne. He is stirring up old hatreds, he is unwilling to speak of peace. He thirsts for our mountain and the magic of ice as found only in Chill Castle. He is unwilling to heed reason and though I and my people wish to avoid war, as long as Narwa is not on the throne I do not believe peace is possible." Adora was silent a moment, absorbing this ill-fated piece of information.  
  
"If there is war in the North and Chill Castle should fall, Hordak would surely seize the opportunity and set up a base there. The sulkies are good fighters but they are not terribly bright. I'll have She-ra pay them a visit, see if she can talk sense into them."  
  
Bow snickered, "more like knock some sense into them." Adora frowned fiercely at him.  
  
"Thank you Frosta for keeping us informed." Frosta gave a regal nod.  
  
Peek-a-Blue stepped forward a troubled frown on her face. "Adora, we picked up the supplies from Corliss but they were meager, much less than we expected. We need more food." Adora sighed, here at least was a problem she could do something about.  
  
"Very well, Bow, arrange a hunt through the Sartyrn forest tomorrow, take fifteen men and see what you can get. Madame, can you organize the twiggetts into a massive fruit and nut seeking force?"  
  
"Sure thing dearie, berries beware, Madame Razz is here!"  
  
"Good, Queen Angella, Castaspella, if you could get each of your subjects to provide vegetables- enough for a single meal it should help us for awhile."  
  
"Of Course Adora. It will be done."  
  
"Thank you, all of you. Your faith in this cause is all that keeps the banner of freedom waving over the land. I'll see some of you in the morning, to the rest of you. See you soon." The crowd began to disburse as each person had some duty or another to fulfill before bedding down for the night.  
  
Adora gently lay a hand on Flutterina's shoulder who turned to gaze in inquiry at her commander. The magnificent winged beauty of the butterfly girl threatened to overwhelm Adora.  
  
She had lavender hair that fell in gentle waves over the graceful arch of her back and lilac eyes sparkling with a gentle intelligence. She was of slight build standing only as tall as Adora's chin but she was dainty and soft and everything utterly feminine that Adora sometimes wished she could be. Her lashes were extremely long and full as was her bosom.  
  
Adora ached with envy inside for Flutterina's sweet beauty, however the most striking thing about Flutterina wasn't her exceptional good looks. It was the massive set of butterfly wings she had blooming beautifully from her back, natures testament to her ethereal wonder.  
  
  
  
"Flutterina." Adora began, "You are the gentlest, most empathic soul I know. I need you to go on a very important mission."  
  
"Alright Adora. What can I do to help?"  
  
"I need you to find Melog. She has had five years to discover her humanity. Now I need that humanity. The rebellion needs that humanity. Find her and bring her back to us. Convince her of our dire circumstances. She has the strength and the heart of She-ra and I need her. The rebellion needs her."  
  
Years ago She-ra had fought the Melog, a monster of muck from the swamps, raised by Shadow Weaver through her dark Magiks the melog could absorb all the strengths and weaknesses of the first enemy it encountered. When it had fought She-ra it had absorbed her super strength and became a match for She-ra, however it had also unexpectedly absorbed her love of life and freedom and eventually became human with She-ra's magical sword. She then left on a quest to discover life in all its splendor and terrible wonder.  
  
They had not heard from her in all that time. Adora was ready to call on her aid.  
  
"As you wish Adora. I'll leave as the sun rises." Flutterina left leaving behind only Queen Angella, Castaspella and Madame Razz.  
  
"Adora, what's going on?" Asked Castaspella. "I am sensing a struggle within you as you seek answers you are having a hard time producing."  
  
Adora sat down and rubbed her face with her hands. "You mean what's going on besides the fact that the man I thought was in love with me has forsaken me for another?" Castaspella simply waited for her.  
  
Adora sighed. "Leech could have killed that child today. It would have been my fault."  
  
"Adora, honey, you are not responsible for the actions of a hordes man."  
  
"No Madame, normally I'm not, but I underestimated him. He's still out there. Still mad. That makes him unpredictable. I fear."  
  
Angella placed a comforting arm around her shoulder. "Adora, you are one woman against so much evil. You have the weight of the fate of so many on your shoulders, you cannot expect to be perfect. Awful things happen even to the best of us. I once lost an entire kingdom to the Horde and ended up a slave to Hunga the Harpy, mistakes happen. We learn from them and move on."  
  
"I wanted his blood you know." The three of them rested their combined compassionate regard on Adora's lowered head; the beautiful and wise Angella, the timeless grace of the most powerful sorceress on the planet- Castaspella; and the bumbling but intelligent regard of Madame Razz.  
  
"I've never actually wanted to kill someone before. You know?"  
  
They maintained their silence understanding Adora needed more than their input and advice, she needed their silent support and understanding as she purged her tormented conscience.  
  
"It made me afraid of myself. That I am capable of such hot blood lust. I've always kept my head in battle, been cool and collected, I choose my target I take them out- this was different. If it had been within my power I would have killed today." Adora turned her anguished gaze at them, silently hoping they would erase her fears but knowing that was impossible.  
  
"I don't want to become the very people I'm fighting." Angella came within inches of her face, pulling her wings in tight against her body as she locked eyes with Adora.  
  
  
  
"Sometimes the only way to defeat your enemy is to make a sacrifice. I'm not speaking of sacrificing others or lands rather I speak of sacrificing a small part of yourself for the greater good." Adora gazed at her uncomprehending. "It's like bacteria, it becomes a part of the host and begins to dismantle it from within- in a sense becoming one with the host it is intent on destroying.  
  
"Angella, comparing me and my actions to that of mindless bacteria is not helpful at this time. I don't want to become a monster." A blood thirsty monster.  
  
"Sometimes in the heat of battle we become the thing we are fighting." Castaspella offered up wisely. Adora grunted. They had no words to comfort her. Finally unable to bear their scrutiny any longer she stood.  
  
"I'm going for a ride." The three watched her leave, a similar concern mirrored in each of their faces.  
  
"Way to go Angella!" Madame offered, grimacing.  
  
"Really, Angella, what were you thinking, comparing our greatest tactician and leader of our rebellion to mindless bacteria?" Castaspella asked archly.  
  
Angella's lips pursed as she made a face totally unsuited to the Queen of Bright Moon. "I was trying to help. For all her training and awesome abilities Adora is merely cutting her teeth on this rebellion. She needs to realize in order to win a war your opponent must be destroyed, this means death and if your lucky when you make a kill you are consumed with bloodlust. It is much harder to kill in cold blood. The results stay with you longer. I care for Adora, I don't like seeing her in pain."  
  
"None of us do, dearie, none of us do." Madame Razz stated worriedly. 


	5. Final moments of Fancy

Chapter 5; Final moments of Fancy  
  
  
  
The moons were hiding this night, painting the star-clad heavens a deep ebony. Adora's heart beat in wild rhythm with Spirits hoof beats, her blood thundered in her ears as the wind roared past. She leaned low over Spirits withers, urging him on- delightedly, he obliged.  
  
His hooves fairly ate the earth they trod as trees and bushes and rocks and hills sped by in a blur of darkened shadows. Her hair trailed behind her like the errant tail of a lost comet, her skin chapping to a cherry red as the wind molested her fair features. She rode her steed in stoic silence even as her heart shattered in her breast.  
  
She heard it in her mind, felt it in her soul; stubbornly she refused to yield to the intense pain.  
  
Spirit slowed to a gentle trot and finally stopped at the edge of a cliff overlooking the beach she rode with Bow. The sight of shore kissing sea and the sea embracing the horizon was spectacular- the varying degrees of darkness fusing with the myriad sparkling lights in the sky was a soothing balm to her weary soul. She came here often.  
  
It was here that she dreamed in wide-eyed wonder with the innocence of a child of the day her world would be free and she could be with the Sea Hawk. The man who loved her.  
  
She thought.  
  
A bitter laugh escaped her changing to a tangled sob which she quickly stifled halfway out.  
  
Many were the evenings she had spent in this very spot soothing her lonely heart with gentle dreams of a tomorrow with Hawk. He was her first, and only love. Thinking of him now still caused a bittersweet pleasure to fill her. He was a scoundrel hiding a gentle heart; she had thought it was hers. Picturing him holding Ariel as he had held her, kissing her as he had kissed her was like twisting a hot knife in her gut.  
  
She smiled.  
  
It was an ugly expression- not a smile of joy- the pain in her heart clawed at her, burning her insides, ripping as it tried to escape the prison of her mind. She offered it no escape as she cradled her pain close to her heart.  
  
That which killed her not could only forge her into a stronger being. She was used to sacrifice. Love was just one more thing she could cross off her to do list  
  
Gazing out on the ocean as black as the sky above it she gave vent to her frustration, her hurt, her rage and confusion, her burst hopes and shattered illusions, her aching heart and troubled soul.  
  
She laughed. An ugly sound. But what else could she do but defy the hurt which threatened to consume her?  
  
Should she cry?  
  
If she started now she'd never stop.  
  
So she laughed that scary, mirthless laugh, inundated with all the rage of a world torn by war. She thrust her fist high into the sky and laughed because she knew if she didn't laugh she would break  
  
She laughed until she couldn't breathe. Then she fell silent and her heart didn't hurt so bad. Stilling her mind, she absorbed the cool night air and sought the calm center of her being which she allowed none to see, none to touch, none to know. She breathed deep. The peaceful inner part of herself she sheltered from the world and kept all to herself flowered. It was here she tucked the hurt she was feeling inside then closed it up.  
  
Time passed. Maybe minutes, possibly hours- she was unsure. Regaining control of her turbulent emotions she pushed the inner storm into the farthest corners of her conscious mind. She was a warrior. She would use her anger, her hurt and disappointment later. In battle.  
  
This was not the first time she had come here to vent her frustrations, nor would it be the last. However gazing down over the side of the cliff and watching the onyx sea beat savagely against the helpless shore, its foamy fingers raking across the tranquil loam she realized that this place would no longer hold the same enchantment it once had.  
  
She stood slowly. Gazing out at the world, she lifted her chin high once again. People needed her.  
  
The time for self pity was done. Grasping a golden locket which hung from a delicate chain suspended round her neck she tightened her fist around its cold weight and with a sharp tug and light snap pulled it off, breaking the clasp which had secured it to her for a little over three years.  
  
She was unaware of the strangled cry which tore from her throat as she sent the shimmering locket flying headlong over the cliff and into the unfeeling dark.  
  
Pulling herself atop Spirit, nuzzling his neck briefly, she started back to camp.  
  
Pulling herself atop Spirit, nuzzling his neck briefly, she started back to camp. She hadn't ridden far when Bow pulled out of the trees and fell into step beside her. Adora's face burned in embarrassment. Had he heard her? Had he seen her acting like a crazy woman? Nothing was said, they rode in silence.  
  
The night was teeming with sounds. Birds, singing one to the other in the dark pastel branches above, leapt lightly from branch to branch. Pink and blue leaves fell quietly like healing kisses from mother nature for her children of the light. Foliage rustled gently as nocturnal hunters crept through the underbrush. There was the deep barum of croaking frogs and the hum of insects and in the distance the sound of laughter.  
  
Adora smiled. With the day she had just lived through she had almost forgotten that laughter, true, joyful, happiness filled laughter existed.  
  
She glanced at Bow. He seemed to be thinking intensely about something. His teeth worried his lower lip as he struggled with some inner demon.  
  
"Bow, what's the matter?" Bow looked over at her startled.  
  
"Well… I was just wondering, are you alright?" Her friend was concerned. Adora flushed.  
  
"Wanna' race?" She asked. He smiled so big she thought his cheekbones were going to break.  
  
She loved these people. They were her friends and her family and they stood beside her even when they thought she was in the wrong. They trusted her to lead them to victory. But more than that.  
  
They cared for her. And she for them.  
  
Too much to allow them to spend the rest of their lives fighting. Somehow she would win this war for them. She vowed right then to redouble her efforts against the Horde. She smiled tremulously.  
  
Leaning over she lay her hand to the side of Bow's cheek.  
  
"Bow, I swear if I weren't already taken by the man of my dreams I'd ask you to marry me here and now."  
  
Bow's mouth dropped open in shock. "Who- who- who's the lucky guy?" Adora smiled a small secret smile and she leaned down to hug Spirit tight.  
  
"Why Bow, you know there's only room for one stud in my life and that's Spirit." She grinned brilliantly at him. "You realize it's another week in the kitchens for you." Bow laughed.  
  
"Don't be so cocky, I'm going to win this time."  
  
"Uh, huh, sure, keep telling yourself that hero while you make me dinner. Ready, GO!" And Adora sped off. Bow didn't stay still for long, kicking Arrow into a gallop he shot after her.  
  
"You cheated! I wasn't ready, Adora, that's not fair!"  
  
"All's fair in love and war Bow!" She called back.  
  
  
  
They raced along the beach, blind in the night save for the twinkling incandescence of a multitude of stars and the instincts of the steeds each trusted with their lives. The thrill of the race was lightning in their blood, a storm brewing in their veins to be unleashed through the speed of their mounts. There was a certain wildness to it, a savage, feral rush, gained racing blindly in the dark and trusting your life to the beast between your legs.  
  
Bow wasn't exactly totally focused on the race however. As Spirit raced ahead Bow had a sweet view of Adora's behind gently rising and falling with the gallop of her horse. Up and down it went, she really was curved beautifully, a broad grin split his face as Adora easily won the race.  
  
"You lost. Again!" She was soooo smug.  
  
"Hey, you don't hear me complaining do you?" Adora stared at him curiously. He was glad it was dark so she couldn't see his face flush red in embarrassment. He asked quickly, "So what was this race, love or war?" A flash of gleaming Ivory teeth illuminated the darkness mere inches from where he sat.  
  
"Both Bow."  
  
"Both?" She had him baffled.  
  
"Love of your cooking and the revolt my stomach was planning if I had to eat my own."  
  
  
  
***********************************************  
  
Catra and Mantenna lay prostrate on the cold sterile floor of the throne room. Neither daring to look up as they struggled valiantly to explain their failure to Hordack. An unkind snort boomed across the chamber.  
  
"So, you were unable to defeat Adora and her little friends hmmm? And She-ra wasn't even there. I must say I am not pleased." A broad- shouldered highly muscled figure of doom loomed over them, his dark shadow cast across their quivering forms like evil incarnate. "You will of course have to be punished." He snorted again.  
  
"Rowww, mighty Horrrdack, we attemmmpted to defeat the rebels but that scoundrel Leech, offered no assistance!" Catra whined nearly in panic, remembering the last time she had been punished.  
  
Hordack had a well of creative genius hidden inside his black heart. He liked being original in his punishments. The last time Catra was punished Shadow Weaver tested a spell of sympathetic magic on her and a shrub- as the shrub sickened so had she until the shrub died. Catra had felt the clammy fingers of death creep round her soul- unable to catch hold and take possession. She had felt the death of the plant as if it were her own. She had no desire to repeat the experiment.  
  
"Yeeees! If that blue buffooon had helped out even a liiittle then maybe we could have stopped those rebels!" Mantenna replied eagerly, anxious to put the blame somewhere else.  
  
"That's right!" Hordack thundered curling his blue hand into a fist, "where is that blue boob!"  
  
"Rowww, mighty one, he took off running from the rebels and we haven't seen him since."  
  
"Well, when I get my hands on him he'll wish he'd never been born. As for you two-" Hordack paused to grin evilly, "failure doesn't please me, sooo-" he didn't even finish speaking, he simply pressed a button on the side of his throne and the floor disappeared from under them, they fell six levels into the depths of the Elduro River which ran below his throne room and through the Fright Zone, emptying into the Ocean.  
  
Hordack spun about on his Steel booted heel and stomping over to his throne he threw himself down to pout and ponder this latest development in the Rebellion.  
  
Hordack considered the Rebellion a joke.  
  
His forces were vast and spread across the face of Etheria. Two- thirds of the planet was his. Ruled by him and his many commanders and generals, they kept the populace subjugated, squeezing their tyrannical fist tight enough each year to kill any thoughts of freedom, any hope of escape or any plots of subversion.  
  
The people to the south of the whispering woods knew nothing of the little rebellion to the north, they had never even heard of She-ra. Many however had heard of Adora, the defector. Instead of being angry, Hordack was actually proud of Adora. She was the mind behind the rebellion, eventually he would of course crush it and her, but he enjoyed matching wits with her. She had always been the brightest commander he had ever trained.  
  
She had a head for tactics and fighting a large scale war. The main reason she hadn't beat him back was simply put, she didn't have the manpower he did. The people of Etheria were quick to fight each other and slow to unite against old prejudice. For years people believed trolls evil- only recently had they united to help the rebels.  
  
Thanks to She-ra.  
  
Hordack gritted his teeth. She was the cause of most of his worries, the focus of most of his rage. She had turned Adora against him. He knew it. Adora had once been a ruthless commander, believing she was on the side of right she had done what was necessary to enforce Horde rule.  
  
In fact it was Adora who had designed and implemented the campaign to take Brightmoon and Queen Angella. Then her brother came through a portal from Eternia and with the help of She-ra and that warrior He-man stole his precious protégé from him, breaking the spells Shadow Weaver held her under for ten years.  
  
Adora had been so proficient in her training she surpassed her entire squad with single-minded determination. Hordack had begun training her himself. In weaponry of every kind, in tactics and campaigning, in psychological warfare and hand to hand combat. No one else under his command could even come close to giving him the workout she had, and he had never held back- too much. When Adora had been Force Captain, she had brought out the best qualities in his warriors. Not from being nice to them either but because they did not want to disappoint her. They knew if she was disappointed Hordack was disappointed and if Hordack was disappointed then bad things happened to people.  
  
Hordack still wanted Adora back under his command, running his armies. No one since her had ever done as well. He remembered how upset he was when Adora disappeared the evening She-ra appeared. He had been terrified that the warrior He-man had killed her for shooting him in the back. Later when he had discovered she had betrayed him he had been furious.  
  
Beyond words.  
  
When Skeletor betrayed him he thought his chance to get her back gone forever- but in a surprising twist of fate Adora returned to Etheria, becoming the leader of the rebellion.  
  
Adora liked power. She also liked to win. Traits he had instilled in her from the time she was a child. Traits he had encouraged and seen blossom under his tutelage. He had seen her attempts to whip her rag-tag band of rebels into a fighting force and was pleased to see how well she had done.  
  
Eventually, she would realize she had no hope of winning. It was there Hordack believed he had her. Once she realized the rebels couldn't win he believed she could be wooed back to his side. If only for the good of the people.  
  
Hordack was a very patient man, and he really wanted Adora back. In his entire life he had never cared for anything or anyone as he cared for her.  
  
She was an obsession.  
  
As a baby Adora needed constant care and being new to Etheria, Hordack had cared for her himself. As a baby needing constant attention Hordack became very possessive of her. She grew up at his side. He placed her in a chamber next to his ensuring her safety.  
  
Unlike the others.  
  
Children were picked every four years across the planet and raised in squadrons in the Fright Zone to be soldiers. Adora had never been far. As she grew Hordack realized she possessed a quick mind and keen intellect. Exactly what he would expect from the child of King Randor. She began questioning how he ran things on Etheria at around eleven years of age, so he acquired Shadow Weaver and had her work her dark spells on the child, insuring Adora's continuing and unwavering loyalty.  
  
He had her taught things the other children were never exposed to, politics, philosophy, the history of the Horde and its primary purpose; to organize all the worlds under one vast empire using all the combined resources of each to push further outward and conquer new planets and gain more wealth. She learned everything. He began grooming her as Force Captain at twelve and as his heir at nineteen. She was to succeed him to his throne when he became the next horde master.  
  
All that changed when she broke the spells that held her.  
  
Hordack despised magic now. He relied too much on it to control Adora and it failed him. Shadow Weaver had failed him. She had never stopped paying the price for that failure either.  
  
Hordack believed Adora would return to him because she wanted nothing more than to win and see all her people united under one rule. When she realized that the rebels could never unite she would return to him. Then he would crush the rebellion.  
  
In the meantime he would allow Adora to experience command and realize just how much she enjoyed winning and loathed defeat.  
  
Her return was inevitable. He was a part of who she was, he had helped engineer the way she thought, he knew her better than she knew herself. And when she returned, She-ra would pose no threat, he had a card he knew she would never suspect he had, he was merely holding it in reserve until Adora rejoined him.  
  
Leech on the other hand was a coward who was quickly out living his usefulness. If anything would unite the people against the Horde it would be a threat to their children. He would have to be punished severely. If he ever showed up. 


	6. Parasite and Ashes of the innocent

Chapter 6; Parasite and Ashes of the innocent  
  
He was chilled. The evening air was wet with dew that fell like a cool blanket. Being a water dweller from the wetlands of Ugaua this was the kind of weather Leech thrived in.  
  
His real name was Baowen son of Slaarg of the Kulketnich clan. His people were the rejected spawn of the swamps. Shunned by the rest of Etheria, they generally stayed in the wetlands of the South eastern continent.  
  
They were a warrior race of beings who absorbed the energies of lesser races that came to their lands. When there were no other races to fight his people fought each other. Their were six clans that claimed lordship over Ugaua- his tribe was the strongest. Kulketnich warriors were the fiercest fighters of all.  
  
Which was why he was such a disappointment to his people.  
  
He was a coward.  
  
In joining the Horde he had thought to hide behind their technology and prove himself a warrior to his people by leading the conquerors of Etheria to victory. Such was not the case.  
  
Leech led no one.  
  
He was even denied his identity, known merely as Leech, an appellation he detested. For years he had endured Hordacks vicious tempers and the command of inept leaders- women no less.  
  
  
  
His lips curled in a snarl. His people knew where women belonged. In the subterranean cabins bearing children and pleasing their men.  
  
The rebels thought him a joke, his comrades knew him for a coward but after tonight nobody would laugh at him ever again. He was going to strike at the rebels where it would hurt them the most. He was going to destroy their children. As he peered down on the village below a malicious pleasure unwound inside him making him slobber and smile grotesquely. After tonight nobody would be laughing.  
  
Except him.  
  
********************************************************************  
  
Mental waves of searing pain ripped across the astral plane as psychic vibrations thundered their invisible way across the land. Emotional agony rippled into her awareness with the subtlety of crashing batneks. The consciousness was fully roused and ready for battle. No wind stirred as trees thrashed at nothingness in the night. And the queen of the twiggets- the mind of the forest knew that something in the world was wrong.  
  
*******************************  
  
The rebels in the camps began to feel a sense of alarm when the forest came to life around them; limbs thrashing at nothing, bending, swaying, creaking, moaning. The people huddled together in fear. The leaders calmed them. Even as they felt the sense of disquiet invade them as well.  
  
***************************  
  
Dawn crept across the cerulean sky as ebony fingers withdrew from the horizon and brilliant hues of crimson and lavender began their merry dance across the face of morning. Creation begun anew, tomorrow had come. Squirrels and chipmunks merrily darted from tree to tree and birds flew home to their nest after a nights hunt as others flew to begin theirs.  
  
Madame awoke and horror was her companion. This day there would be no respite to the weary.  
  
Adora and Bow, Glimmer and many of the leaders of the various encampments made their alert eyed way to the meeting glade were Madame Raz awaited them.  
  
"Madame, what's happening? You called to me- you were in my mind like the Sorceress from Grayskull. I never knew you could-"  
  
"Something has happened." Madame's usually happy voice was somber and heavy with sorrow and fear. Her eyes were unusually puffy.  
  
"What is it?" Adora asked her tone commanding.  
  
"I don't know, but there is so much pain Adora, there is weeping- we've not known this since the Horde arrived."  
  
"Madame I don't understand what-"  
  
"Adora! Look!" Bow gasped pointing behind her. Adora whirled prepared to attack. A man and a woman came toward them, their eyes glazed and dead, their skin cracked and stained by the long dry trail of tears. The body of a boy cradled in their arms.  
  
"She-ra… please, our son is ill, She-ra can heal him…." The man, obviously the father lay the boy at Adora's feet. The mother reached out and dug her fingers into Adora's arm.  
  
"Please help him," she whimpered eyes shining, "please find She-ra, she can heal him. She can heal my boy." Adora crouched down next to the child. He was pale, blue, he'd obviously been dead for a while. She locked eyes with the father.  
  
"What happened?"  
  
"Please," he whispered, "She-ra can help us, she can heal him." Madame wrapped her arms around the woman's shoulders. She collapsed into her embrace, silent.  
  
"Sir," Adora swallowed hard, "sir, your son is dead, now you must tell me what happened."  
  
"No, Jonathan is not dead, he is just sleeping, he's very sick you know. But She-ra  
  
can save him, she has healing powers, just get her… please…"he whispered his eyes shone with such agony Adora could not deny his plea. She knew it was futile, even She-ra couldn't bring back the dead.  
  
But she went anyway. Her mind a masss of confusion she strode swiftly from the clearing. Once free of scrutiny she held up her sword.  
  
Glinting like steel the metal was actually an alloy of Eternium and Steel fused with magic. Like the tip of hope it thrust high against the morning's fushsia womb.  
  
"For the honor of Grayskull," stars super nova'd from that silver tip in blinding radiance to dance merrily over the form of Adora, opening the vacuum of space and sucking her in to issue forth the champion of light, the crusader of justice into a shimmering gloriole of hope!  
  
"I am She-ra!" Adora was gone. In her place was She-ra. Swifter than flying unicorns She-ra ran, back to the man and the woman and their child.  
  
Their dead child.  
  
Her heart broke as she neared and saw hope flood the eyes of the parents. They stepped back as she bent low over the child. Her heart overflowed with sorrow and compassion and tears like dewdrops from deity fell from her sapphire orbs to fall upon the lifeless form of the child. She reached out her arms and placed her hands upon the fallen innocent. Her voice broke as she pleaded for his life with one utterance.  
  
"For the honor of Grayskull." The mantra trickled from her lips a desperate prayer to whatever being heard and responded to such things. But no answering warmth or gentle glow came to her. She felt nothing save the cold lifeless corpse of a child beneath her fingers.  
  
The woman began wailing anew and the man fell to his knees, grabbing his childs lifeless body from the ground and rocking it. Then he began to whimper. It was as if the grief were being torn from his body.  
  
Suddenly he jerked himself to his feet and drawing a knife from his boot he sliced off the last two fingers of his left hand releasing a cry of pain and anguish, blood spurted from his hand as he cradled it against his chest, a crimson stain blossoming across his tunic. She-ra moved to heal him but he violently gestured her back as he continued wailing.  
  
"Your power couldn't save my boy…-Nyaaaaaghh!!!….- don't touch me!"  
  
Glimmer hurried over with a cloth for the man to wrap about his hand and staunch the  
  
bleeding.  
  
"What was wrong with your son?" Glimmer queried gently.  
  
"Nothing. Not a damn thing!"  
  
"How did he…. What caused his condition?"  
  
"A monster. One of them Hordesmen. He grabbed my boy and sucked the life right outta him. Then he laughed. Oh God! He laughed!" She-ra's blood became ice in her veins. Her anguished gaze met Madame's and she stood.  
  
"Where are you from?"  
  
"Dwyllan. A small village near Rendwoll." In one lithe motion She-ra was gone.  
  
She-ra knew what killed the boy.  
  
She knew the monster for she had fought him recently.  
  
Leech.  
  
He would die.  
  
She would not merely fight and defend.  
  
This time she would kill. She had never taken a life before but the fury in her blood cried out for vengeance. Blood demanded blood, he would die and at her hands.  
  
She didn't remember leading Spirit from the woods or mounting him but she was atop Swiftwind and soaring south towards Dwyllan, Rendwoll, and the Fright Zone. She flew low to observe the city. She saw no sign of her prey. She did however see a crowd. She landed Swiftwind and pushed her way through the throng outside a womans cottage.  
  
She was weeping.  
  
A pretty girl-child lay in her arms her golden hair spread around her porcelain features, a blue ribbon tied and tucked above each ear. Death had claimed her gently leaving her as beautiful as she had been in life. She-ra heard talk around her.  
  
Poor thing….woke up to find her daughter dead in bed, window wide open…truly terrible…I've got to get home and check on my boy…  
  
Shouldering her way to the front she placed her hands on the girls still form, beseeching heaven to hear her call and aid her in healing the child.  
  
Heaven was unavailable.  
  
  
  
A silent shriek, an angry accusation echoed in her head as She-ra gazed down at the child, unable to pull her back, unable to reach her, totally helpless. She ran back and mounted her steed. The air embraced them and urged them onward.  
  
This scene was repeated five times that day. The faces of each child indelibly etched into her mind their pale innocent features to haunt her for the rest of her life. The fury was no longer hot it was cold. Leech would die and Adora didn't care what she had to do to accomplish the task.  
  
Broken, hurting, full of sorrow She-ra flew to Mt. Skydancer to the Crystal Castle. She stood upon the ramparts overlooking Etheria. The world seemed so distant from her pain.  
  
  
  
As She-ra she felt things more acutely than others more so even than Adora. She felt the pain, the rage, the sorrow and fear, the helplessness of others empathically and it merged with her own- generally this gave her a heightened sense of purpose. But in this she was helpless and worse, she shouldered the guilt of being the cause of this tragedy.  
  
The guilt, already more than she could bear, was magnified ten-fold as She-ra. She drew her sword her heart pounding, bursting with agony- hers and that of others.  
  
Suddenly a violent scream issued from her throat and slamming her sword into the castle floor she embedded it up to the hilt and began screaming. Over and over. Rage echoed the hallowed halls of the castle, it throbbed and writhed as a living thing. Emotional flagellation whipped over her as she cried out and her cries unknown to her echoed across the face of Etheria.  
  
  
  
The people of every village and town heard the mournful savage cry of the feral warrior.  
  
The mourning knew She-ra wept with them and were comforted.  
  
The people to the southeast unaware of the turmoil to the north heard the sound and quaked in their homes.  
  
The rebels in the woods and the trolls in their caves and the unicorns on their islands and Sea Hawk and his woman heard the cry of their protector and they worried for their friend.  
  
And in the Fright Zone Hordack heard the cry of his nemesis, his troops heard her cry, every commander he had heard it, Leech in the swamps heard it and they began to tremble.  
  
Evil began to fear.  
  
They did not here the pain in her cry. They merely heard in that wild rabid nightmare wail the promise of vengeance black and terrible. Leech heard the lust for blood, his blood and he stopped laughing for he knew his days were numbered.  
  
Lighthope, the guardian of the Crystal castle made sure not one soul on the face of Etheria doubted that their Champion mourned with them. And not one heart blackened by evil doubted that her vengeance would be something ugly and unwelcome. 


	7. Consequences of Guilt

Chapter 7; Consequences of Guilt  
  
  
  
Cruel dawn once again bled its savage path of crimson across the sky. Adora was pale. Her eyes cold. No trace of warmth could be found in their depths. Her purpose was singular. Leech would die, she would bathe in his blood. Hooded and silent she entered the gates of Bright Moon Castle. The guards allowed her to pass and she moved to the throne room unimpeded. Angella's personal guards blocked the path to the royal chambers.  
  
"The queen is asleep." Their tridents crossed to prevent her from passing.  
  
"Wake her. It's urgent." One nodded and proceeded up the stairs to awaken the queen. The other remained behind, gazing at Adora curiously. Adora said nothing as she awaited Angella.  
  
Angella moved quickly down the stairs, garbed in a gown of seafoam green and an ephemeral dressing robe of like hue she leapt from the top stair and floated gently to the ground, her Angels wings spread wide to make her descent one of effortless grace.  
  
"Adora, what is it? What has happened?" Angella was wary of the coldness she sensed in Adora.  
  
"Children have died. It is my fault. They must be avenged. Summon Castaspella and Madame. I have a plan." Angella nodded, trepidation clouding her heart as she left Adora. She went to the moonstone at the heart of the castle.  
  
Brightmoon and all its magic, all her magic and that of her daughter came from the moonstone which drew its magic from the three moons of Etheria. The moonstone could also be used as a conduit to transport her image across vast distances. Placing her hands upon the stone she felt herself jolt from the castle and its city across, Etheria in an instant to Mysticor to the chambers of Castaspella.  
  
The mahogany haired sorceress lifted her eyes from the papers she was writing and smiled in greeting.  
  
"Hello, Angie, what can I do for you?"  
  
"You better get to Brightmoon, now, something's up. Adora is…different." Castaspellas eyes darkened with concern.  
  
"I'm there." Angella winked out and Castaspella rose from her chair. Closing her eyes she gently awoke the well of power which lay inside her.  
  
It was vast and endless and timeless and utterly beautiful. It was the core of her being the essence of who she was- she had spent thirty one years of her life perfecting her talents and increasing them. She was unmatched in her abilities. Her Aura began to glow, radiant, blue then in an instant she was at Brightmoon.  
  
She entered the throne room. Awaiting her was Adora, white and drawn. She looked miserable but her eyes held a resolve as cold as chill the glaciers of the Blizzard sea. Madame Raz and Angella were there as well. No one looked happy.  
  
In a voice cold with lack of emotion Adora laid out her plan.  
  
"Leech has killed six children. Two of them girls and four of them boys, none older then ten. I am going to kill him. The rebellion doesn't have the ability to find him. But Hordack does. Hordack is going to deliver Leech into my hands and I will kill him."  
  
"Adora, Hordack isn't going to let you simply kill Leech- and why would he locate him and deliver him to you?" Castaspella asked in confusion.  
  
"Because I am going to betray She-ra to him." Adora stated coldly, meeting Castaspella's eyes for the first time. The sorceresses eyes went wide with shock. She leapt to her feet and her hands began to crackle with blue fire.  
  
"Explain." She commanded tersely. Adora remained unmoved.  
  
"She-ra has agreed to allow me to betray her location to the Horde in order to exact my revenge on Leech." Castaspella struggled to understand.  
  
"I'm not sure I follow you, after you hand She-ra to Hordack why would he keep his promise to you? He's a liar and he's the enemy!"  
  
"Hordack will keep his promise because he wants me."  
  
"You?"  
  
"Yes. Me. I am going to rejoin the Horde. Betraying She-ra is the price of admission. To kill Leech I am going to hand over some rebel sympathizers."  
  
"And who are they?" Angella commanded.  
  
Adora turned her cool regard to the queen of Brightmoon, unflinching beneath her hostile scrutiny. "The families of the deceased children have agreed to pose as Rebel sympathizers in order to see the deaths of their children avenged."  
  
"After you've killed Leech what are you going to do?" Angella asked dreading the answer.  
  
"Angella, after Leech is dead you must disband the rebel camps in the woods. Divide them up and spread our forces. Lead some to Spikeheart and set up a base there; have some in Mystacor and here in Brightmoon. Move some to infiltrate the south. Form individual resistance cells, and tell the rebellion to go into hiding."  
  
"Why Adora?" Castaspella asked, "we are stronger today than ever, why would we want to go into hiding?"  
  
"Because I am going to conquer Etheria and your pitiful band of rebels will not stop me. They may be stronger than they have ever been but Horde forces are stronger." For the briefest of instances her eyes softened as she whispered, "I don't want any of my friends to get hurt."  
  
"Adora, dearie, your not thinking clearly- honey you've been through a lot, you need some rest-"  
  
"You will listen!" Adora snapped. The three women went silent, Madame concerned Angella angry and hurt Castespella brimming with hostility- but they all listened to their leader.  
  
"For five years I have led this rebellion. Together we have all tried to unite the people against the Horde to no avail. Peace! Peace, men cry! They fear fighting so we bear them to freedom with our labors. And do they appreciate the sacrifice? Do they cherish the prize we wrest from the Horde for them? No. They look down their nose at us and deride us for fighting believing there is a better path, while enjoying the fruits of our labor."  
  
"They are quick to fight each other when the real enemy is the Horde. They don't understand what life will be like under Hordacks tyranny. I will make them understand. As Etheria falls beneath my blade and the horde squeezes them ever tighter in his grasp they will realize what they have lost. Only when they understand what they are fighting against and what they are fighting for will they join us in our cause. To regain our planet we must first let it fall. And I will see that it happens swiftly with as little bloodshed as possible and with no more innocent children dying at the hands of the horde."  
  
"Adora- what makes you think that Hordack wants you back, or that he will put you in command of his armies?"  
  
"Casta, before I left the Horde, Hordack was grooming me to replace him. I am the only one who knows how to handle a large command half as well as him. He will make me Commanding General. He wants me corrupted. He always has. My plan to conquer the people I have fought so long for will appeal to his perverse sense of humor."  
  
"Adora you realize if you do this, if you betray us your friends, Bow and Glimmer and all the others who have come to love you will feel abandoned even if they know its not true-"  
  
"No. They must believe it is real only you three may know of my true plan, they must believe I have truly joined the Horde, everyone must."  
  
"But if your captured and someone doesn't know the truth you could be harmed."  
  
"I know the risk Angella. But the only way to win back our home is to rouse the people and what we have been doing for the past five years is not effective. This way people will flock to your banner much sooner than if things remain as they are. Besides… no more innocent children must suffer for a cause that this planet does not believe in."  
  
The three women pondered Adoras words. She was wise. And she hit the nail on the head in regards to the people and their main obstacle to freedom being their lack of unity. They all realized that in order to win the people must be united as one- if not in freedom then in slavery.  
  
Finally Castaspella stood. She walked over to Adora and lay her hand to Adora's cheek.  
  
"Beautiful child of Etheria, I fear for your soul. 'Ere you undertake this mission think of the cost to yourself."  
  
"I already have and that's why I must do this. It is for the greater good of our people. Better they learn now while they still have She-ra to champion them than years from now when their heroes have all become legends and their legends become myth, and freedom becomes a memory of the way things used to be."  
  
Adora rose to leave. She stopped before Angella and grasped her hand.  
  
"Angella, you are the queen of Brightmoon and you are needed here, I suggest that you allow Glimmer to lead a contingent of rebels to Spikeheart."  
  
"Adora, Glimmer is just a child she's not ready for leadership like this-"  
  
"Angella, five years ago the princess of Brightmoon led an uprising that freed the village of Thaymore and turned a force captain for the evil Horde into a rebel leader. She's more ready than many give her credit for. Let her be a woman now. She'll need the experience for what's to come."  
  
"Very well Adora."  
  
"Angella- tell her I love her. She was my first friend…." Adora paused, drew a shuddering breath and shook her head, "never mind, tell her nothing. If she hears that she may try to come after me."  
  
"Adora, you don't have to do this. Please change your mind."  
  
"No." Adora whispered gazing into the queens eyes, "you're wrong. I do have to do this. It's what must be done. You said it yourself, in war a part of yourself must be sacrificed in order to win."  
  
"Adora I said a part of you not your entire soul!" For the first time that morning Angella saw the rage and guilt burning in Adora's eyes and her breath caught.  
  
"My soul is nothing. Nothing compared to the six bright flames snuffed before they had a chance to add their brilliance to the creation. If my soul is the price that must be paid to destroy this monster and make our people rise up, then I will pay. I will destroy the Horde from the inside. I will be the disease that brings about their ruination. And any that stand in my way will be annihilated."  
  
"You will become a monster. The destroyer of the world you claim to love." Castaspella rasped, her eyes wide with horror." Adora arched a graceful brow.  
  
"If it must be, so be it. I will destroy Etheria as she is- mewling and whimpering in ignorance and fear, from the ashes of the old world a new world will be born, one to rise as a phoenix from the flames of destruction and become new and strong and when the people join to reclaim the world I stole I will gladly aid them in that endeavor."  
  
"Adora, if you do this, the people will destroy you. You may never be able to come home." Madame Raz pleaded.  
  
"If my world is free….. I will accept that."  
  
"What if they decide not to fight and instead crumble under the sword?"  
  
Adora drew her brows together and rage ignited in her eyes at the thought. Through clenched teeth she hissed a reply, "if they will not fight for that which they have lost then let them burn for they do not deserve to live!"  
  
Adora left. The three women were at a loss. 


	8. Unholy Bargain

Chapter 8; Unholy Bargain  
  
Adora dived into the deep, cold current where the Singing River gave birth to the Wailing River- the world became new, silt spread before her eyes and parted as she swam. Shiny silver fish, elongated marvels of swift instinct darted warily out of her path as she maneuvered swiftly downstream.  
  
The current was quick and soon she swam right into the fright zone to the chamber beneath Hordack's throne room A rusty iron grate blocked her path, whipping out an energy blade she boosted the power and sliced through each bar with swift, military precision. She swam right through and pulled herself up onto the platform Hordack had made for his lackeys to return to his throne room after he dropped them down into the river. She then untied the knapsack she had brought with her and took out a cloak Madame made for her.  
  
Imbued with a special magic, it repelled the elements and blended, making the wearer unnoticeable unless specifically looked for. She pulled it over her head then proceeded up the stairs to the throne room.  
  
A small wooden door opened in the back of the room. Cylindrical in shape, sterile and devoid of life a massive computer and view screen behind the throne dominated the room. Hordack's throne was meant to intimidate, placed on a raised dais, its construction was that of human bones and cold steel. Hordack, Shadow Weaver and Catra were in conference when, unnoticed Adora slipped into the room. She eased her way along the wall until she could hear what was going on.  
  
  
  
Hordack snorted, "That idiot, if I find him he'll rue the day he decided to act on his own, the people won't simply allow what he did to happen, he's only made our job much more difficult!"  
  
"Yess," Shadow Weaver hissed, "we should send a squadron of troopers to the three villages he attacked to keep the peace or we may end up with three more Driles on our handsss."  
  
"Roww, mighty Hordack, shall I send a squadron to search for Leech and bring him back?"  
  
"At once, send two squadrons I want him now! I don't know how I'm going to deal with this- subjugating a populace by brute force is one thing, but even I know every one has there own line you just don't cross." He ran his fingers over his face in frustration.  
  
"They're just a bunch of kids who cares what happened?" Imp whined.  
  
"The people care, they don't get roused too often complacent in their ignorance. They work extremely hard and then they die, as long as life goes on pretty much the same higher ideals such as freedom and liberty are commodities they care nothing about. But when their children are threatened and killed- well, this will have to be handled." Adora stepped away from the wall and lowered her hood.  
  
Hordacks mouth dropped. Shadow Weaver and Catra turned to see what Hordack was looking at and Adora smirked.  
  
"I believe I know how to handle this problem." She said. Shadow Weaver raised her  
  
bony, clawed hands and a dark mist began to form between them.  
  
  
  
"Hold your spells Weaver," Adora snapped, "I've come to talk, not kick your ass!" Catra moved between her overlord and this threat, not out of any sense of loyalty, merely because she knew it was expected of her.  
  
"Hordack, should I take her captive?" Catra asked, her gaze darting between the Rebel leader and her commander. Hordack smiled.  
  
"No, Catra, I want to hear what she has to say." Hordack eyed her speculatively. "Speak, Princess."  
  
"I will kill Leech. The people will be satisfied with his blood and the death of the killer will avenge the children he murdered."  
  
"Rowww, Hordack you can't let her-"  
  
"Silence!" Hordack bellowed before scowling fiercely down at Adora. "Why would I let you kill one of the evil horde merely because he was being- well how can I say this without offending you, oh I guess I can't, too bad- evil?"  
  
"You said it yourself, you have a major public relations crisis that needs be resolved with all possible haste. I am your solution." Adora's chin rose a fraction of an inch, "besides now or later, it makes no difference I will kill him." Hordack scratched his chin thoughtfully a moment.  
  
"How about I have you escorted to my dungeon instead?" Adora stepped towards him, he made no move to stop her. She was mere inches from his face as she peered into his cold, black eyes.  
  
"How about you make me Commanding General of all Horde forces and I mop up this little rebellion and deliver you this planet on a golden platter?"  
  
His eyes widened marginally. He raised a ham fist and waved toward the exit, "Shadow Weaver, Catra, Imp, leave us!"  
  
"I don't wanna!" Imp whined.  
  
"Now!" Imp scurried out behind Catra and Shadow Weaver. Adora and Hordack were alone.  
  
"Adora, if you rejoin the Horde I will be glad to let you handle Leech- at your leisure, provided you prove your loyalty to me first! However, you defected my dear, and I can't just make you leader of my forces, they wouldn't follow you."  
  
"They would- If I gave you something they could not."  
  
"And what is that, my dear?"  
  
"She-ra. The Princess of Power."  
  
Hordack gazed at her a moment before laughing. He laughed deep. He laughed long and he laughed hard. Here was the Adora he had trained. Without Weavers spells to cloud her mind, without all that goody good garbage, here was the leader he had groomed to replace him. He saw in her eyes an unwavering desire to kill. Once she crossed that threshold there would be no turning back. Ever. She-ra was an added bonus. Adora was the prize he desired- still he had to be sure.  
  
"I will allow you to fight Leech if you prove to me you have severed all ties with the rebellion, I will even allow you the chance to command my forces provided you hand me She-ra, but You must earn that right from any who would take it from you. Yeees, I believe a tournament is in order. I will appoint you second in command but any who covet that title for themselves will have the chance to fight you for it."  
  
"After I kill Leech, right my lord Hordack?" Hordack was shocked to feel his eyes misting over with tears. With the greatest effort he held them back. Reaching up he caressed her golden hair, letting its silky texture slide through his fingers. He snorted. Twice, before he could speak through the lump in his throat.  
  
"Of course, and welcome home Commander."  
  
"Commanding General, sir."  
  
  
  
Chapter8; Commanding General Onyx  
  
"I'm cold, Peeka, why are we here again?" Spiritina asked timidly, as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other, the chill predawn air raising goosebumps on her lavender skin.  
  
"I've had a vision; we are here to see my power either confirmed or disproven." Spiritina eyed Peekablue's pale features with troubled concern. Her blue eyes were wide and glassy, large, dark shadows beneath those shimmering orbs made her appear small and fragile.  
  
" What was your vision?" Spiritina asked. Peekablue was silent a moment, the twiggett almost thought she wouldn't answer- and when she did the sprite wished she hadn't as her reply raised goosebumps on her skin that had nothing to do with the coolness of the air.  
  
  
  
"Within the shadows of tomorrow I saw night pass across the heavens; it's greedy hand dimming the stars. I saw the brightest light in the sky get swallowed by the darkness and then a light illuminated the dim."  
  
Spiritina ventured a small smile, "well, that's good, at least there was light after the dark, right?"  
  
"The light was from our world. It was in flames."  
  
"What does that mean?" The wood sprite whispered.  
  
"It means the darkness begins here, and from here it will spread to consume the entire world in dark fire. We are going to have company soon. I am tired, wake me when they arrive."  
  
"Who?" Squeaked Spiritina. Peekablue was already asleep.  
  
They arrived as dawn began oozing across the sky; like a scarlet infection on the horizon it crept over the cobalt abyss.  
  
Three squadrons of Horde troopers encircled the town and began waking the citizens, shoving them from their beds and their homes and escorting them to the towns center where Force Captain Catra waited, with her force squad Mantenna, Scorpia, Grizzlor and a slave transport. Men, women and children were herded like animals in their nightclothes to face the squad.  
  
Peekablue and Spiritina watched them from their hidden alcove between two buildings. Suddenly Peekablue stiffened.  
  
"Look!" She rasped, "there." Spiritina turned her gaze to where Peekablue pointed and gasped in fear.  
  
Beautiful and deadly and chiseled of stone an Angelic apparition swathed in night sat atop a demon steed of ebon-hue.  
  
  
  
"Peeka, wh-what is that?!" Spiritina asked, her voice quivering in fear. Hate emanated off the beast in waves.  
  
"Horde steed." Peekablue muttered grimly.  
  
"What is it- what is a horde steed?"  
  
"Raised on Horde world they are the foals of the gentlest mares, trained by the beast masters they are bred on hate and raised in the flaming bowels of volcanoes."  
  
"Did you say gentlest mares?" Spiritina questioned in disbelief.  
  
"Yes, they are broken young. Right after birth. Weaned on the dark magiks of the horde and their mother's blood."  
  
"What!" Spiritina cried revulsion apparent in her voice, posture and face. Peekablue nodded.  
  
"After the birth of a black foal the mother and any siblings are slaughtered and bled, their blood is what nourishes the steed, they bond with no one, kept in their own hell until called on to serve as instruments of terror for the Horde's foulest servants. This is what we fight. This is the evil Horde. This is why they cannot be allowed to win."  
  
Spiritina's eyes were glued in awe to the beast- monstrous in size and totally black, flames of hatred burst from its nostrils and its eyes gleamed crimson with deadly purpose. The soul of the beast had been destroyed and something darker had risen in its place. A worthy match for the rider of inhuman and terrible beauty.  
  
A woman, garbed from head to toe in jet black armor with what looked to be some kind of lightweight metal plating clinging to her like a second skin- carried herself with a menacing presence.  
  
"So that's a Horde steed, who is she?" Spiritina muttered to herself, tossing a glance at Peekablue.  
  
"She is the star, she is being consumed." Peekablue answered. The twiggets neck hairs stood on end at her tone of voice, but she didn't understand. She turned her attention back to the woman.  
  
She wore a black helmet on her head with some kind of speaker phone attachment, steel bat wings projecting from either side and Onyx goggles which covered her eyes, stripping her of her humanity and leaving her a shadowy and perilous monster. Low on her hip hung a stun gun and two electric prodders which could knock a person out or kill them depending on it's frequency.  
  
Golden hair spilled out over her shoulders the only thing of light on the walking black hole. Wispy strands clung to the ice sculpted cheekbones as the wind blew it in wild disarray, with no regard for her rank or position as Horde enforcer.  
  
Peekablu and Spiritina watched in terrified awe. Peekablue, though pale with fatigue and concern kept unblinking watch as people were picked out of the crowd.  
  
Spiritina began feeling a warm clammy sensation in her mind and felt there was something familiar about the woman. Though fearful she made herself scoot forward to get a better look. The woman dismounted and began touching the villagers, not all of them merely a select few felt the cool kiss of her leather garbed hand. These were removed and placed aboard the transport.  
  
One of the villagers who had been separated from the others would not go quietly.  
  
"Our children are dead! You're to blame- you and your foul henchmen!" Spittle flowed from his mouth as he spoke, eyes wild, red, bloodshot from lack of sleep, grief, pain, looked as if his handle on reality had slipped..  
  
Grizzlor held him by the wrists as he struggled to be free but the man addressed his comments to the nightmare in black which had remained silent, unmoving, unreachable, undeniably in charge.  
  
"You tax us into starvation! Beat us into submission! Rob us of hope or joy or freedom, deny us our humanity, then kill our children!" This last was wailed wildly as he stumbled to his knees. Grizzlor ruthlessly jerked him up- no easy task as he was built like an ox, as big around as he was tall. The man began weeping piteously.  
  
"We're not animals… we are people… my daughter…" His voice broke.  
  
Cold as winter's chill caress over the Blizzard sea the woman's voice washed over all.  
  
  
  
"You're not an animal." The man raised his eyes to her face but could read no emotion behind the black shield that separated this ice maiden in shades of night from humanity. But he saw her slight smile and hope blossomed in his heart.  
  
"We- are- not- animals!" He affirmed as he struggled for composure.  
  
"No you're not. Animals have worth. You are a slave. You have none. As for your daughter, well… she's just a dead slave." From her hiding place Spiritina gasped at this cruelty, recognizing him as one of the men who had lost his daughter to Leech. Peekablue's fingers dug deeply into her arm.  
  
With an inarticulate cry of fury the man threw off Grizzlors restraining grip like he was no more than a bug and tackled the commander to the ground, they rolled in the dirt for a moment, until he had her pinned beneath him, his beefy hands closed around her ivory throat- no one moved to intervene or offer aid in any way. The woman quickly jabbed the man in the throat, hard. He rolled off her, coughing, wheezing, gasping for air, his face turning purple.  
  
With the speed and grace of a deadly predator the woman sprang to her feet in one fluid motion and drew the prodders, flicking them on. Dual headed, they gave off an evil green glow.  
  
"Rise dog, you will learn to respect your masters!"  
  
As the man got to his feet he released a bellow of rage and charged her. She dodged to the side and as he flew past landed a blow with one of the electric prods to his midsection while ramming the other into the base of his skull. He went down and did not get up.  
  
She did not even pause for breath as she drew her stunner, aimed at and shot Catra in the chest. The Force Captain crumpled to the ground, unconscious.  
  
"You!" She snapped pointing to Scorpia, "pick her up, the rest of you- I demand loyalty. Next time a comrade falls and you have the opportunity to render aid do so, or that-" She said pointing at Catra's prone form, "will be you." The woman mounted the Horde steed in one swift motion and left the troopers and force squad to finish with the villagers and return to the fright zone alone.  
  
Two women gazed in arrested horror from the fading shadows- at the commander's retreating form. The mask had fallen from the woman's face and what was revealed was unbelievable.  
  
Adora had betrayed them all.  
  
Peekablu lowered her eyes and let the tears fall. What she had seen had come to be now all roads led into darkness.  
  
"We must warn the others." She whispered softly. The future held fire and she did not know if any of them would survive the burn. 


	9. Commanding General Onyx

Chapter 8; Commanding General Onyx  
  
"I'm cold, Peeka, why are we here again?" Spiritina asked timidly, as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other, the chill predawn air raising goosebumps on her lavender skin.  
  
"I've had a vision; we are here to see my power either confirmed or disproven." Spiritina eyed Peekablue's pale features with troubled concern. Her blue eyes were wide and glassy, large, dark shadows beneath those shimmering orbs made her appear small and fragile.  
  
" What was your vision?" Spiritina asked. Peekablue was silent a moment, the twiggett almost thought she wouldn't answer- and when she did the sprite wished she hadn't as her reply raised goosebumps on her skin that had nothing to do with the coolness of the air.  
  
  
  
"Within the shadows of tomorrow I saw night pass across the heavens; it's greedy hand dimming the stars. I saw the brightest light in the sky get swallowed by the darkness and then a light illuminated the dim."  
  
Spiritina ventured a small smile, "well, that's good, at least there was light after the dark, right?"  
  
"The light was from our world. It was in flames."  
  
"What does that mean?" The wood sprite whispered.  
  
"It means the darkness begins here, and from here it will spread to consume the entire world in dark fire. We are going to have company soon. I am tired, wake me when they arrive."  
  
"Who?" Squeaked Spiritina. Peekablue was already asleep.  
  
They arrived as dawn began oozing across the sky; like a scarlet infection on the horizon it crept over the cobalt abyss.  
  
Three squadrons of Horde troopers encircled the town and began waking the citizens, shoving them from their beds and their homes and escorting them to the towns center where Force Captain Catra waited, with her force squad Mantenna, Scorpia, Grizzlor and a slave transport. Men, women and children were herded like animals in their nightclothes to face the squad.  
  
Peekablue and Spiritina watched them from their hidden alcove between two buildings. Suddenly Peekablue stiffened.  
  
"Look!" She rasped, "there." Spiritina turned her gaze to where Peekablue pointed and gasped in fear.  
  
Beautiful and deadly and chiseled of stone an Angelic apparition swathed in night sat atop a demon steed of ebon-hue.  
  
  
  
"Peeka, wh-what is that?!" Spiritina asked, her voice quivering in fear. Hate emanated off the beast in waves.  
  
"Horde steed." Peekablue muttered grimly.  
  
"What is it- what is a horde steed?"  
  
"Raised on Horde world they are the foals of the gentlest mares, trained by the beast masters they are bred on hate and raised in the flaming bowels of volcanoes."  
  
"Did you say gentlest mares?" Spiritina questioned in disbelief.  
  
"Yes, they are broken young. Right after birth. Weaned on the dark magiks of the horde and their mother's blood."  
  
"What!" Spiritina cried revulsion apparent in her voice, posture and face. Peekablue nodded.  
  
"After the birth of a black foal the mother and any siblings are slaughtered and bled, their blood is what nourishes the steed, they bond with no one, kept in their own hell until called on to serve as instruments of terror for the Horde's foulest servants. This is what we fight. This is the evil Horde. This is why they cannot be allowed to win."  
  
Spiritina's eyes were glued in awe to the beast- monstrous in size and totally black, flames of hatred burst from its nostrils and its eyes gleamed crimson with deadly purpose. The soul of the beast had been destroyed and something darker had risen in its place. A worthy match for the rider of inhuman and terrible beauty.  
  
A woman, garbed from head to toe in jet black armor with what looked to be some kind of lightweight metal plating clinging to her like a second skin- carried herself with a menacing presence.  
  
"So that's a Horde steed, who is she?" Spiritina muttered to herself, tossing a glance at Peekablue.  
  
"She is the star, she is being consumed." Peekablue answered. The twiggets neck hairs stood on end at her tone of voice, but she didn't understand. She turned her attention back to the woman.  
  
She wore a black helmet on her head with some kind of speaker phone attachment, steel bat wings projecting from either side and Onyx goggles which covered her eyes, stripping her of her humanity and leaving her a shadowy and perilous monster. Low on her hip hung a stun gun and two electric prodders which could knock a person out or kill them depending on it's frequency.  
  
Golden hair spilled out over her shoulders the only thing of light on the walking black hole. Wispy strands clung to the ice sculpted cheekbones as the wind blew it in wild disarray, with no regard for her rank or position as Horde enforcer.  
  
Peekablu and Spiritina watched in terrified awe. Peekablue, though pale with fatigue and concern kept unblinking watch as people were picked out of the crowd.  
  
Spiritina began feeling a warm clammy sensation in her mind and felt there was something familiar about the woman. Though fearful she made herself scoot forward to get a better look. The woman dismounted and began touching the villagers, not all of them merely a select few felt the cool kiss of her leather garbed hand. These were removed and placed aboard the transport.  
  
One of the villagers who had been separated from the others would not go quietly.  
  
"Our children are dead! You're to blame- you and your foul henchmen!" Spittle flowed from his mouth as he spoke, eyes wild, red, bloodshot from lack of sleep, grief, pain, looked as if his handle on reality had slipped..  
  
Grizzlor held him by the wrists as he struggled to be free but the man addressed his comments to the nightmare in black which had remained silent, unmoving, unreachable, undeniably in charge.  
  
"You tax us into starvation! Beat us into submission! Rob us of hope or joy or freedom, deny us our humanity, then kill our children!" This last was wailed wildly as he stumbled to his knees. Grizzlor ruthlessly jerked him up- no easy task as he was built like an ox, as big around as he was tall. The man began weeping piteously.  
  
"We're not animals… we are people… my daughter…" His voice broke.  
  
Cold as winter's chill caress over the Blizzard sea the woman's voice washed over all.  
  
  
  
"You're not an animal." The man raised his eyes to her face but could read no emotion behind the black shield that separated this ice maiden in shades of night from humanity. But he saw her slight smile and hope blossomed in his heart.  
  
"We- are- not- animals!" He affirmed as he struggled for composure.  
  
"No you're not. Animals have worth. You are a slave. You have none. As for your daughter, well… she's just a dead slave." From her hiding place Spiritina gasped at this cruelty, recognizing him as one of the men who had lost his daughter to Leech. Peekablue's fingers dug deeply into her arm.  
  
With an inarticulate cry of fury the man threw off Grizzlors restraining grip like he was no more than a bug and tackled the commander to the ground, they rolled in the dirt for a moment, until he had her pinned beneath him, his beefy hands closed around her ivory throat- no one moved to intervene or offer aid in any way. The woman quickly jabbed the man in the throat, hard. He rolled off her, coughing, wheezing, gasping for air, his face turning purple.  
  
With the speed and grace of a deadly predator the woman sprang to her feet in one fluid motion and drew the prodders, flicking them on. Dual headed, they gave off an evil green glow.  
  
"Rise dog, you will learn to respect your masters!"  
  
As the man got to his feet he released a bellow of rage and charged her. She dodged to the side and as he flew past landed a blow with one of the electric prods to his midsection while ramming the other into the base of his skull. He went down and did not get up.  
  
She did not even pause for breath as she drew her stunner, aimed at and shot Catra in the chest. The Force Captain crumpled to the ground, unconscious.  
  
"You!" She snapped pointing to Scorpia, "pick her up, the rest of you- I demand loyalty. Next time a comrade falls and you have the opportunity to render aid do so, or that-" She said pointing at Catra's prone form, "will be you." The woman mounted the Horde steed in one swift motion and left the troopers and force squad to finish with the villagers and return to the fright zone alone.  
  
Two women gazed in arrested horror from the fading shadows- at the commander's retreating form. The mask had fallen from the woman's face and what was revealed was unbelievable.  
  
Adora had betrayed them all.  
  
Peekablu lowered her eyes and let the tears fall. What she had seen had come to be now all roads led into darkness.  
  
"We must warn the others." She whispered softly. The future held fire and she did not know if any of them would survive the burn. 


	10. Aftermath of Betrayal

Chapter 10; Aftermath of Betrayal  
  
  
  
Angella headed the emergency meeting of the rebel forces whispering woods. Castaspella and Madame Razz stood behind her to lend support as needed. Pandemonium reigned.  
  
"Adora wouldn't betray us!" Someone shouted.  
  
"It's one of Shadow Weaver's evil spells!"  
  
"I didn't want to believe it either and I was there!" Spiritina cried.  
  
"Quiet!!" Angella commanded. Gradually the noise died down as all looked to Brightmoons queen for answers. "I know you are all frightened- but remember, for now at least, we are safe. Please remain calm" She turned and motioned to a woman with Kelly green hair and a fan of peacock feathers spread behind her; the woman was pale and weak and had to lean heavily on Broome and Madame Razz for support. "Peekablue, tell us what you saw." Peekablue's voice soft at first gained strength and volume as she continued.  
  
"We went to Dwyllan- I had received a vision, I knew that the darkness spawned there had yet to dissipate, I knew there was more to come. Spiritina and I were there when they arrived. Horde troopers gathering slaves. Not unusual- but their leader was. She was the night her being swallowed and absorbed the light around her making it dark as she, and dark as the beast she rode… a Horde Steed!"  
  
There were gasps of horror and children began crying in fear. A Horde Steed was a tale mothers used to frighten children into eating their vegetables. A rumor, a figment, a fantasy, not something real.  
  
"People, please, let Peeka finish her tale." Castaspella ordered. Gradually silence returned, though even Queen Angella appeared horrified. Mother's left the throng taking their weeping children with them.  
  
The peacock Seeress continued her story, her voice thin and shaky. "This woman singled out the slaves to be taken. She subdued them. Brutally. I knew the minute I saw  
  
her, but like Spiritina I didn't want to believe it either. When her mask fell away there was no denying the truth. Adora belongs to the Horde."  
  
Peekablue's pained expression mirrored the dismay of the others, murmer's began to sweep through the crowd once more when Bow stood.  
  
A muscle ticked in his jaw as he clenched and unclenched his teeth, the barely restrained energy in his stance made all around him step away and gaze at him in askance.  
  
"I won't believe Adora has betrayed us! What you saw was a double, or a spell, a trick or an illusion- but what it wasn't was Adora." He raised his arm and swept it over the crowd. "Adora created all this, she saved all of you and united us under freedom's flag, being free means more to her than anything!! And she would never sell us out. Never!"  
  
  
  
"Bow," Angella said, "be still." She then turned her attention to the crowd. "People of Etheria hear me. It is true, Adora has returned to the bosom of the Horde. She is to be the new leader of their forces." Weeping was heard throughout the clearing and muted wails of denial sounded their way across the hearts of all as they struggled to accept what had happened. "As you know, the infamous Horde warrior Leech recently murdered six children. He has gone into hiding. Adora blames herself for the deaths of these children."  
  
"It's not her fault!"  
  
"She didn't kill them!"  
  
"We need her!"  
  
"She has struck a deal with Hordack. Adora will fight and kill Leech to avenge the deaths of these children. In exchange for this privilege Hordack has demanded she take control of his forces and Betray the rebellion."  
  
"No!"  
  
"She can't do that!"  
  
"She's our leader!"  
  
Bow shook his head in denial; horror, shock, confusion, all danced over his countenance. "Adora wouldn't do that… would she?" His eyes pleaded with Angella to deny it. She looked away. Glimmer lay a comforting hand on his shoulder her own face betraying shock, uncertainty and anger. Angella raised her hand for silence, again.  
  
"We must deal with what we are going to do. Adora knows our strengths, she knows our weaknesses and worse she knows the woods and the rebels who inhabit them. We must leave the whispering woods."  
  
"No! The woods protect us from evil, we are safe here, if we leave the Horde will capture us."  
  
"Not true!" Angella countered. "We are not beaten, merely delayed, we will form resistance cells and blanket Ehteria with our message. For too long have we held onto the woods as a safety net leaving the southeastern part of Etheria to fall further and further into the hands of the Horde while we keep only our small portion of the planet free. Adora has only given us the incentive to step up the rebellion not abandon it."  
  
"That's right!" Glimmer shouted. "Adora may have abandoned the cause of freedom, but we won't!" The crowd cheered agreement before getting quiet enough to hear the Angel queen.  
  
"Glimmer."  
  
"Here, Mother."  
  
"Take the village people from Drile with you to Spikeheart, ask the troll king for asylum, there you will run your own resistance cell and strike at the Horde. Your Primary objective is to become one hell of a pain in the ass to the Horde distracting them and their new commander from other areas. Do you understand daughter?"  
  
"I think so." Angella frowned remembering her earlier concerns and hoping Adora's faith was not misplaced.  
  
"No Glimmer. Do, don't just think, I am counting on you. Spikeheart and your cell must become the primary focus of Adora's first wave of aggression against us, it will allow the rest of us to fan out, set up new bases of operation at different points."  
  
"I will do it mother, you can count on me."  
  
"Good. Bow you must-"  
  
"No." Bow angrily held up his hands waving Angella off, "I'm going to find She-ra, she'll know what to do." Angella heaved a frustrated sigh, before turning to the rest of the people.  
  
"We are going to split ourselves into seven cells, go back to your camps and pack your gear and get ready to move. We leave in three days." Many of the people disbursed until only the leaders remained behind.  
  
"I will summon the Sea Hawk through the moonstone, we are going to need him to take three of our cells south. We need to begin affecting change there as well as maintaining freedom here. With the Horde forces focusing on the woods, Spikeheart and Brightmoon I believe they will not notice the unrest fermenting in their own backyards until too late. I hope."  
  
Castaspella nodded agreement.  
  
"I will lead the cells myself, Mysticor will be in Good hands, I will leave Netossa in charge. She has been studying my sorcery books for a long while, I will clothe her in the illusion of myself so our enemies will be none the wiser."  
  
  
  
Angella looked at her sharply, "Are you sure that's wise? Mysticor is a symbol of hope to the people, if it falls we may fall with it." Castaspella shook her head negatively.  
  
"I have not sat idle for seven years in my kingdom while the rebellion has been fighting the Horde. There are layers of spells on my kingdom. As soon as I activate them all, no one with evil intent will be able to enter Mysticor." Angella's brow knit in confusion. Castaspella smiled patiently.  
  
"Angella, Glimmer, Madame, Spinerella, here's a tale that has its beginnings long before the Horde ever came to this planet. One thousand years ago a great sorceress and seer, the Lady Ayella Adami lived here, in the whispering woods."  
  
"Doesn't that name mean 'peace with teeth'?" Spinerella asked.  
  
"Yes, in the old tongue. Lady Ayella foresaw a great darkness blanketing the land, snuffing out all bastions of light and hope. She knew when the darkness came children of the light would need a sanctuary until the champion rose up to beat back the plague of evil that would consume our land. Using her vast magiks she linked her consciousness to the woods, her life force to that of the forest. That day the whispering woods were born and since then no evil has been able to enter the forest."  
  
"Casta as interesting as that is what has this got to do with Mystacor?"  
  
"Patience friend." Castaspella smiled. "Before Lady Ayella disappeared from history's eye she brought many of her books of magic to Mystacor for safe keeping. I have been studying these texts for some time now and I believe I can cast a similar spell on Mystacor, linking my life force to that of the palace so no evil may enter there. There is a problem though."  
  
"Oh dear I guessed there would be with such ancient magic." Madame stated, shifting uncomfortably when Castaspella turned her wise regard her way.  
  
"The spell requires constant fine tuning, constant checking, I don't know how Ayella Adami managed to become independent of the forest?"  
  
"How do you know she did?" Spinerella asked curiously.  
  
"Well, she must have, the spell on the woods still works and she is surely dead by now- she was a grown woman at the time the spell was cast; I know this because the level of magic involved requires a sorceress of great knowledge and maturity to cast successfully."  
  
"I still don't understand why you feel you have to go." Angella remarked.  
  
Mahogany eyes blazed bright into Angella's blue orbs, "I have spent my life training to be the queen of Mystacor, the most powerful sorceress on Etheria, I have always put the well being of others before my own. I have never truly lived life. I don't know what it is to be in the moment, I have never been in love. I want to have one chance to be just a woman instead of a servant to my people." Angella was taken aback. She knew royalty were the servants of the people but she had her daughter and at one time she had her own love. Looking at Castaspella and seeing her as she was- a beautiful woman who was achingly lonely made her heart catch in her throat. She lowered her eyes.  
  
"I understand. Even if we survive Adora's betrayal we don't know if we will survive this war with the Horde. Just be careful. Be safe my friend."  
  
"No one is safe while the Horde rules."  
  
"Okay, heres my plan. Glimmer is going to take the villagers of Drile to Spikeheart. She is going to attempt to free the surrounding towns and villages. Casta, you, Spinerrella and the Star sisters are going to each take a contingent of rebels to these points in the south, the Star sisters group will take the Meadow lands, which are just south of the Valley of the lost; Spinnerella your cell will take the arid steppes of Shaddamite, the continent south of Beast Island and Castaspella you will lead a division here by the rolling savanna's of Untakki, north of the Valley of the lost. If you take back this area you take the source of seventy percent of the Horde's food and grain and herd animals."  
  
"Angella," Spinnerella interjected, smiling nervously, "How are we to defeat the Horde when they out gun us every time?" Spinnerella was a beautiful woman. Tall she stood as high as She-ra, long, thick, lush pink curls fell in an orchid cascade down her back. She wore a carnation colored gown which had slits up the side to her hips, beneath it her legs were clothed in pink tights. She was a dancer with amazing abilities. She also had a talent for sarcasm, but a good and gentle heart. Angella leaned in closer, warming to the topic.  
  
"Bow is going to lead a group and She-ra will lead another and they will focus their efforts on obtaining technology from the Horde for our use, they will also work to sabotage the Hordes Genetic labs and ore processing plants here a nd in the mines at Mondor." Madames eyes lit up.  
  
"Oh I'd love to get behind the controls of a horde space cruiser!" Angella looked at Madame out of the corner of her eye. Spinnerella was not so subtle.  
  
"God help us if that day ever comes- you can't even fly that broom of yours straight." Madames jaw dropped.  
  
Broom balled up his little twig hands and stuck out his chin, "Hey, I resent that remark!" Spinnerella stuck out her tongue at him and crossed her eyes.  
  
Castaspella rolled her eyes at their antics. "Angella that makes only five resistence cells what about the other two?"  
  
Angella nodded. "I will lead one here at Brightmoon and Peekablue will lead her people to take back the lands south of Talon Mountain and reclaim the Ivory Citadel."  
  
"Peekablue has returned to her people?" Casta asked.  
  
"Yes, once her power manifested itself she became their leader. She doesn't like it, you know her, she is afraid of the Horde. Her people are not warriors. However, they are not nomads by choice. Before the Horde drove them from their cities and the citadel they were a culture steeped in the arts and philosophies, and wise in the ways of nature. It was once said they could even commune with the plants. Now that the goddess has returned to them through Peeka they will fight to enthrone her in that citadel."  
  
"They really believe she is a goddess?" Broome asked.  
  
"Yes, they do. The peacock people have not had a ruler in thirty five years, they have been wanderers for twenty of those years as theirs was the first race Hordack conquered when he arrived on Etheria. In exchange for first rights to stolen Horde technology Peekablue has agreed to send two of her people with each cell so that they may spy out the terrain for us and help maintain contact with each other. Her people will expect the technology soon. Do you all understand what to do?" Angella asked. She gazed at each of her friends for a long moment, hoping this wasn't the last time she'd see each of them. "May the Ancients protect you. Go choose your people. I will summon the Sea Hawk."  
  
Then it was done. Bow had fled into the woods to seek out She-ra, but he would return and he and the Princess of power would choose their brothers and sisters to aid them in their fight for freedom. The Rebellion had leaders. The rebellion had a plan. The rebellion had champions and heroes to carry on the cause. The rebellion had hope, dim and fragile.  
  
But the evil Horde had a new commanding General. The Horde had Adora. Angella shivered as she spread her wings, embracing the wind and flew toward Brightmoon. 


	11. A Friend in Pain

Chapter11; A friend in pain  
  
  
  
  
  
A fierce orange orb, brilliant and golden, white rays of light filtered through fluffy pink clouds in exuberant abandon. A benign sun sat high in the sky, gentle deity of the afternoon heavens. It was warm, it was quiet, it was beautiful. Such a perfect day. Of the sort Bow enjoyed sharing with Adora.  
  
But Adora was gone.  
  
Possibly a traitor.  
  
His gut clenched. Curling callused hands into fists he walked without purpose, without destination, retaining the vague idea of finding She-ra, but mainly he just needed to move. His stride was long, his gait sure. He should have grabbed Arrow, but he hadn't thought; his emotions were chaotic, confused, in wild disarray. He needed to find She-ra. She would know what to do.  
  
Problem was he had no idea where to look. Adora would know. But Adora was the reason he needed to find her. Stopping abruptly, he sat down. Trying to maintain control, he breathed unsteadily. With a loud moan between gritted teeth, he slammed his fist into the soft, sandy earth. Pain shot up his arm, sharp hungry needles, distracting him, briefly, from the flames of hurt disbelief raging in his heart.  
  
Adora was his friend. His stomach tensed as what he heard that morning flowed through his mind, pounding in his skull. Curling up, placing his head between his knees, rage and pain and disbelief rolled over him in equal measure. Sweating, trembling, gasping for air, he struggled for calm.  
  
Nothing was certain.  
  
Adora, one of the few people to see beyond his playboy persona, beyond the jokes and facade of carelessness he showed the world was a member of the horde.  
  
He shuddered.  
  
Adora looked inside him and saw someone no one else did. She saw Bow, the man. A man who wanted freedom for his people and was willing to pay any price, even play the fool just to bring them a little joy for a brief time. She recognized the burden of sadness he carried within him, soothing it with her easy acceptance of him. Because of this his feelings for her ran deep.  
  
Yes, he was conceited, he was a braggart; he had many skills, all of which made him extremely proud. Since the age of twelve he dedicated himself to becoming an adept fighter for his people. For years he studied Archery with the greatest archers on Etheria. Ondi-amites, wood elves of the meadowlands. Their name meant 'harmony' in a forgotten language. A race of beings who made the trees of the forests their homes, their spirits were in fact part of the trees. When Hordack tried bombing them, their collective spell casting abilities erected a magical barrier over the woods and meadows, keeping the Horde, their bombs and flames out of the meadowlands.  
  
When Hordack couldn't conquer the meadowlands, he blockaded them. Setting up a mine field along its borders which ensured none could go in and none could come out. Being a race of pacifists, the elves stayed in their forests and rolling meadows; choosing not to contest the dominance of the horde in Untakki. Later the Horde conquered the agrarian towns and vast wheat fields of the north. They installed an overlord and formed a dark alliance with the Kulketnich and other dark spawn of Ugaua.  
  
After studying four years with the Ondi-amites they named him master archer; a title they rarely conferred on humans. He also became proficient with the staff. With them he developed his appreciation for music. There he discovered his marginal talent for illusion and magic. He also learned to read people and understand them.  
  
People as a rule were suspicious and untrusting; he learned brooding in silence and holding his pain close to his heart would earn him nothing; but often, many would open up to the effulgent and gregarious. A warm smile and friendly jest accompanied by a willing ear and tankard of ale could earn him much needed information about the horde and local sympathies. Hence his alter ego the laughable, teaseable, loveable, rogue.  
  
Many times that was all people saw when they looked at him. It wasn't so bad because over the years the persona had become part of who he was; but not all of him. He was so much more. Somehow Adora had seen that. She saw his skill, his commitment and dedication and talked to him as a person.  
  
Until Adora and She-ra joined the rebellion he had despaired of ever being seen for who he truly was. Glimmer, then the leader of the rebellion, often scolded him like a child. He couldn't blame her. It was the image he cultivated, flirting with all the women in the rebellion- including her. Adora knew differently. Almost from the beginning. Adora took the time to dig beneath the layers of defense and deceit to find out about the man behind the fool.  
  
Adora knew him.  
  
He thought he knew her.  
  
Maybe he was wrong.  
  
On both counts.  
  
Inhaling deeply, he smelled spring and sun and honeysuckle, he felt the gentle touch of warm afternoon air. What if it were true? What if she had betrayed them all.  
  
That would make her his enemy.  
  
He hurt. He needed to ride. Turning he headed back to the woods. Arrow at least, was one friend who would not betray him.  
  
She-ra flew low over the woods, Swiftwinds hooves lightly grazing the lofty carnation-hued bows of the pastel paradise. Hidden in the trees, listening to the meeting below, she observed the rebels chart their future course. She gazed on Peekablue's weak form in concern. She bore witness to everyone's reaction to Adora's betrayal. Her eyes misting over with tears which fell, unimpeded. She was able to pinpoint the exact moment Glimmer, disillusioned by her former leaders act of terror, lost faith in her.  
  
Bow's reaction hit her hard.  
  
Of all the rebels she worried about him most. Bow was special to her. His life had not always been easy. His was a dual personality. The world knew him as carefree and happy and fun-loving and lightheartedness personified. Adora recognized him as a man committed to the cause of freedom to the marrow of his bones and the depths of his soul. He carried the tragedy of his parents in his heart as a constant reminder of why he fought the Horde. This gave him a trace sadness, barely detectable in his eyes unless looked for.  
  
Adora sensed it immediately. Possibly because she carried her own personal torment inside her. She felt a kinship with him; a connection of shared sorrow. Both of them having lost their families to the Horde- for though hers was not dead, her family had missed twenty-one years of her life. Twenty-six, if one counted her years with the rebellion. Twenty-six years she could never regain. And if the Horde were not defeated soon, they would miss the next twenty-six.  
  
As She-ra she needed to find him and offer what comfort she could. But it would have to be a swift comfort. Hordack was expecting to capture She-ra this day near the Sartyrn forest, unaware.  
  
Adora's price, paid for the dubious honor of becoming supreme Horde Commander. She-ra shivered. The beast Adora had ridden that morning left his odor on her. Swiftwind had balked, refusing to allow her to mount until after she had bathed the stench of Horde-steed from her body.  
  
Suddenly snapping from her silent musings, she spied the object of her thoughts and search. Bow, on the beach, pushing his mount hard, racing across the wet sands.  
  
"Down, Swiftwind!" She-ra commanded. With a whinny of assent, the unicorn lowered himself to the ground and began keeping effortless pace with Bows stallion.  
  
The golden horse gleamed with sweat, its mouth frothed with spittle, its chest heaved. It was obviously tired but continued pushing itself beyond exhaustion. She-ra placed her hand to her head and tried to contact the beast with her mind. It's thoughts were simple and light, full of love and devotion; not the dark multifaceted hate and rage of the Horde Steed. She shivered, recalling how- as She-ra, she had been forced to subdue the beast before mounting him as Adora.  
  
My friend…hurt…heart sad…I run fast… take him away from sorrow…" The disjointed images that came with these thoughts branded themselves in She- ra's mind. Bow burying his head in Arrows auburn mane. Silent tears, hot and heavy streaking a salty path of emotional fire down his cheek losing themselves in Arrows mane. Not a sound passing his lips but his manly frame shuddered once. Twice. Arrow nuzzling him. Arms tightening around the equines neck. Then he mounted turning his horse towards the beach where his four-hoov-ed friend struggled to distance Bow from the heartache inside him.  
  
"Bow! Stop!" Bow gave no indication of having heard her but began slowing Arrow to a halt. The wind erased all evidence of crying from his face leaving his expression closed; the angles of his face seemingly carved of rock. But the image was there in her mind, haunting her. He sat erect, stiff, unmoving. His voice like a whip, harsh, stinging lashed its way across her reverie.  
  
"Is it true? Has Adora betrayed us?" His full bottom lip compressed into a flat line as he awaited her answer. At a loss, she didn't know how to respond. To delay the inevitable she threw her leg over Swiftwinds saddle and slid to the ground.  
  
"Bow… walk with me?"  
  
"Answer me!" Bow snapped. His dark eyes blazing angry fire at the warrior woman. She-ra arched one blonde brow at him and placed her hands on her hips, tossing her hair over her shoulder she waited. After a moment Bow grunted, before dismounting. In one fluid motion he leapt to the ground, landing lightly on the balls of his feet. He stood eye-to-eye with her. Not something many men could brag about. Her cerulean orbs lowered, her gaze fell to the ground.  
  
"Well?" He snapped.  
  
"From one point of view you could say Adora has betrayed us all. But from my perspective she is doing what she has always wanted to do. She is uniting her people."  
  
"She-ra, don't play word games! She's working for the horde now!"  
  
"Yes." She replied, evenly, her steady-eyed gaze piercing his soul. "But you know why. She is going to kill Leech." She-ra turned away, wrapping her arms around her middle, rubbing her hands over her elbows as if cold. She began walking. Her golden boots making light indentations on the soft mud of the shoreline. Bow fell into step alongside her. They were both quiet a moment. Then he spoke.  
  
"You know Adora has never killed before."  
  
"I know."  
  
"What if she freezes?"  
  
"She won't." She-ra answered softly.  
  
"How can you be sure?" Bow queried a thoughtful frown on his face. She-ra stopped walking so Bow did as well. He looked at her. Her face had gone white. Her eyes haunted- causing the lavender flecks in their sapphire depths to be more pronounced.  
  
"When Adora told me what happened to the boy in the forest she climbed on Swiftwind and together and we searched for Leech. We did not find him. We found only the trail of death and sorrow he left behind. Five more children dead." She-ra's voice trailed off at the remembered horror, "Adora was responsible for it all. If she hadn't underestimated Leech, if she had taken him seriously as the threat he was instead of laughing at him, this would not have happened." Bows mouth dropped open as he gazed in astonishment at his friend. When he found his voice, however he launched into an attack to dispute her poisoned logic.  
  
"How can you say that! Adora made an error in judgment, I agree, but she is not to blame for Leeches actions!" She-ra gazed into his eyes for a long moment before responding.  
  
"Regardless of what you or I think, she believes she is and she has appointed herself as the avenger of these children. She is willing to pay what price she must."  
  
"But at the expense of our entire world?!" He ran his hands through his hair in frustration, "I just don't understand." Bow looked out over the azure sea of Sigh, his thoughts crashing together like the waves crashed against the sand at his feet. "If this is all about guilt then I have to go to her! I have to convince her that it is not her fault." She- ra glanced at him sharply grabbing his arm.  
  
"You must not do that!" Bow looked pointedly at her grip on his forearm. She relaxed her hand and he pulled away.  
  
A first.  
  
He had never pulled from her touch before. She stepped back. "I have spoken to her. Her position is tenuous right now. Hordack is all that stands between her and failure. The rest of his armies are not happy at her return. She has many enemies. Give her time, Bow. She will come to us." Bow searched her face for a moment, finally his shoulders slumped.  
  
"I don't want Adora as an enemy." She-ra raised a hand to cup his cheek softly, for a moment their eyes locked. Then she cleared her throat and stepped away.  
  
"I have to go." She mounted Swiftwind. "Have hope my friend. It is the one thing we must never lose, else the darkness that struggles to claim Adora will take us all. Up, Swifty!" She-ra and her unicorn flew into the afternoon sky disappearing from sight. Bow turned to Arrow. He was trembling. Guilt flooded his heart.  
  
"I'm sorry boy, let me rub you down." Bow cared for his steed lost in thoughts of Adora's redemption. If Adora was doing this out of guilt, she needed a friend to help her see the truth of things. He was that friend. He vowed then and there no matter what he would never lose faith in Adora. 


	12. A Brothers Love and wise Advice from Gre...

Chapter12; A Brothers love; Wise advice of Grayskulls  
  
Guardian  
  
  
  
All went exactly as planned. Hordack led Catra, Clawdeen and Shadow Weaver to the spot where they were to find the princess of power. She was there. Relaxing in the grass, seemingly unaware of Hordacks presence. Hordack didn't waste time gloating he merely motioned for Shadow Weaver to begin her spell. They were going to send She-ra through a portal to another world, far across the cosmos; but first they had to trap her in their prison of dark light. It was agreed that Catra and Clawdeen would lure her to the prison which remained invisible until triggered- then Shadow Weaver would transport her instantaneously through the transworld portal using her dark magilk.  
  
"Ohhh, myssstic powers of darkness, let your evil enchantments be freed, your servant of bane and pain is in need, lend me your fire, I offer you thisss champion of light, consume her in your wicked desire, end her radiance with your blight, as is your will, take her far from this place and wreak your ill!" Dark shadows issued from Weavers bony fingers, flowing out from her like smoky and insubstantial serpents, forming a dark pool of fog on the grass, then shimmering they vanished. "Mighty Hordack it is done." She hissed.  
  
"Good," he snorted, "Catra, Clawdeen take her. And don't be gentle!"  
  
Catra lowered her mask and began her transformation. Silently, the two massive cats padded through the bushes, Clawdeen leapt from the ground into the branches of the lavender Liumas tree shading She-ra's reposing form, leaving Catra to take the front. Catra released a low, throaty snarl.  
  
"Hello pussycat." She-ra said, leaping from her supine position to her feet.  
  
  
  
"Heee-yaagh!" She yelled, launching herself into the air, somersaulting over Catra, landing behind her. Catra's leonine form whipped around as Clawdeen jumped from the tree to be at her side. Together they made a strikingly formidable duo. Clawdeen shook out her lustrous pink mane as the two advanced, baring long, ivory canines, growling menacingly. She-ra took a step back, a mocking smile graced her lips.  
  
"Hello kitties, feeling frisky today are we? Okay, catch me if you can!" Spinning about on her gold-booted heel, she ran toward a tall, straight, thick trunked Liumas. The two cats darted after her. Instead of dodging to the side of the tree, using her momentum to give her enough push ran up the tree's trunk and arched over the backs of the large, fanged predators.  
  
"Heeee-yaagh!" She cried, landing lightly on her feet. Swiftly, grabbing Clawdeen by the tail, she swung her around with no apparent effort and slung her into the pool she had lain by just moments ago. She-ra laughed lightly at the fuchsia felines sodden howl of indignation and drew her sword. Circling Catra warily, a wicked glint lit her eye.  
  
"Catra, if I didn't know any better I'd swear you've been in the catnip again." Catra roared and leaping at her throat. "Sword to Shield!" She yelled, backing up. Moving closer to the hidden trap. Smiling, She-ra viciously slammed the shield into Catra's oncoming cranium. There was a satisfying thunk as furry head met metal. The violet Panther fell to the side, hitting the ground and rolling unconscious onto the grass.  
  
"Night, night kitty." She said sheathing her sword. Turning her back on the insensible feline she walked away. Suddenly, without warning she was encased in a cage of dark fire.  
  
"Ow!" She cried in surprised pain.  
  
Her skin burned where it touched the glowing violet bars and she cringed away from them. Huddled down her eyes darting from side to side she gasped in seeming shock as Shadow Weaver and Hordack stepped from the trees.  
  
"Oh no!" She whispered, her eyes widening in surprise.  
  
"That's right," Hordack sneered, laughing in fiendish delight, "I am finally going to be rid of you once and for all! And all thanks to Adora!"  
  
"Adora!" I don't believe you! You're lying. Adora would never betray me." Hordack just laughed.  
  
"Adora has betrayed the entire rebellion. She is mine once more. She will lead Horde forces against the puny efforts of this planets defense and together we will enslave the populace."  
  
"No!" She-ra breathed as if horrified at the idea. "I won't believe it!"  
  
"I don't care if you do. You are not my problem anymore." Hands on his hips he leaned in close to her. She could feel his hot fetid breath on her cheek. "Good-bye, She-ra." He motioned to the crimson sorceress at his side, "Weaver, send her away."  
  
"As you wish , Hordack." Weaver rasped. Black smoke enveloped She-ra and the cage of dark light.  
  
"No!" She cried, to no avail. Her world went black.  
  
  
  
Hordack trembled in absolute ecstasy as the Princess of Power disappeared. "I did it!" He gloated, "I defeated She-ra!" Shadow Weaver looked at him sharply and unfolded her arms, straightening her back.  
  
"With all due respect, Mighty one, without my magiks-" His dark look quickly quelled whatever else she was going to say. Gulping she bowed her head, re crossing her arms over her chest. He smiled.  
  
"This is a great day for the Horde. Adora has returned to us and I defeated She-ra. Soon the entire planet will fall to Adora's sword."  
  
"She hasn't won the tournament yet!" Shadow Weaver hissed. Hordack snorted, unconcerned.  
  
"She will. Tomorrow Adora will kill Leech, silencing the dissidents clamoring for justice on behalf of the children he killed. Then she will take over as my new Commanding General."  
  
"Ohhh," Shadow Weaver grated, "only if none of our other generals challenge her!" Hordack frowned. Why was she trying to dampen his euphoria?  
  
"Adora can handle any one of them; the only one to really worry about has no interest in commanding my army." He stressed the word my, leaving his little witch no doubt as to who was actually running things.  
  
"Wait for those miserable furballs to ready themselves, then return to the fright zone. I want you at my side when the commanders begin arriving. Those who have little fear of my technology will be wary of your magic. I will use that."  
  
"As you wish, my lord." She answered bowing her head in consent  
  
She-ra awoke with a throbbing headache. Moaning, rubbing her temple, she sat up quickly. Too quickly. The world spun in a blur of colors and shadows. Her stomach rolled. Gasping she rolled to her knees and began retching horribly, heaving the contents of her stomach onto the ground. She closed her eyes, squeezing them tightly shut, counting to ten before opening them once again. Using her wrist she wiped the side of her mouth. Black magic. Not her ideal way to travel.  
  
"Hey sis. How's life?" She whirled, going from her knees to her bottom, sword in hand, to find a handsome, yellow-haired man in a pink tunic and white undershirt with lavender pantaloons smirking over at her. A green tiger lay at his feet as he reclined by a large boulder. It was Adam. Her brother. She hadn't seen him in so long.  
  
Dropping her sword to the ground, she burst into tears.  
  
"Adora what's wrong?" He asked standing up straight, a concerned expression on his face. She-ra stood, stumbling forward and threw herself into his arms.  
  
"Oh, Adam," She wept, her tears soaking into his tunic, "It's terrible! I don't think I'll ever-be-happy-a-gaiiiin!" She hiccupped this last, wiping her nose on his sleeve. He reached his large arms around her rubbing her back in a soothing motion.  
  
  
  
"Hey, little sister it can't be that bad…can it?" She sniffled and stood up, pulling away slightly.  
  
"It is that bad. Adam, I have to kill someone." Adam was silent, not betraying his shock by so much as a flicker of an eyelash. He kept his own counsel, giving her a chance to collect herself.  
  
Drawing in a shuddering breath, she sat in the cool, green grass. Immediately, Adam did the same. They sat close enough that their knees touched. Enough to offer comfort without stifling her. She sat, head in her hands for a short while. Then turning her tearstained features to him she told him everything. He listened without interruption. He didn't condemn her or offer up any moral judgments or try to persuade her of her folly. He was just there. What he heard horrified him, her heartache became his own. He felt so inadequate in the face of her anguish. He wanted to make it better and he couldn't.  
  
Occasionally he would nod encouragement but mostly he simply listened. Finally it was done. She watched his face for any sign of anger, any hint of revulsion or recrimination. There was none. All she saw was the love he had for her, the hurt he was experiencing at having not been there for her and the desire to help.  
  
"Adora, I'm so sorry." He whispered petting her hair and pulling her in for another hug.  
  
"Don't be sorry for me, Adam. Be sorry for my world." Her voice cracked as fresh tears rushed fiery tracks down her face. "It's going to get much worse before it gets better. For any of us." She looked at her brother.  
  
He tried looking serious, solemn, somber, but there was a wicked glint in his eye.  
  
"What?" She asked, puzzled. Her question caused the sides of his mouth to twitch.  
  
"You actually said that?" She still appeared confused so he stood. Pursing his lips and sticking out his chest he pranced in front of her. In a horrible falsetto voice he said, "you're not an animal you're just a slave and your daughter is just a dead slave." He narrowed his eyes a little to appear threatening. She giggled. When she had said it, it had been sooo mean. But when Adam did it, it was- well funny.  
  
"It was worse than that. I was perfectly horrid, Adam." He grinned unrepentant.  
  
"Well, what can I say sis, when you're good you're really good and when you're bad," he lowered his voice dramatically, "you're perfectly evil." He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. She laughed, a short gruff guffaw, but a genuine, from the belly, ejaculation of joy.  
  
"I love you, Adam." She said softly.  
  
"I know." He answered back. They were silent a moment.  
  
"Adora, are you sure you know what you're doing?" When she didn't answer he moved to sit beside her. Her knees were drawn up to her chest and she was laying her head on her arms, staring pensively at nothing. Finally she spoke.  
  
"Adam, the People of Etheria can not be forced into fighting for a cause they don't believe in. Obviously they don't believe in the rebellion. They think they can bargain with the Horde, retain some of their freedoms and liberties. Too often I have heard the plea for peace- as if the Horde would grant their desire. Who insures the peace which they deem so precious? We do. The Horde would never heed their wish for peace. I am making them face the reality of the Horde now. As Etheria falls and her people realize what they have lost they will inundate the rebellion with their desire and will to fight for freedom. They take what few liberties they have for granted. They will continue to do so if things do not change. Then our last hope for freedom will die in their apathy. Someone has to say 'No more'; in unity my people will find their strength."  
  
"But why must Etheria fall at your hands?" Adam queried struggling to understand his sister without judging her. She-ra mindlessly plucked at the grass next to her.  
  
"I am the only one in a position to ensure that this war remains clean. Without me what Leech did could happen again. Children must not suffer for the actions of adults. They are innocent." Adam frowned.  
  
"Newsflash sis, in war children always suffer."  
  
"But they don't have to be slaughtered!" She snapped. "If Etherians will not fight now, after what Leech did, then they will fight when they lose everything! Freedom, hope, choice, liberty, love, all of these things will whither beneath the cold rule of the Horde. Then my people will realize why they must fight."  
  
"Adora, they will fight you." Adam stated bluntly. "They will not thank you for this." She was still. Adam pressed his advantage, "Adora, forget Etheria, if you no longer fight for the rebellion then come home. Don't become what you hate so much."  
  
"Adam, I don't have a choice." His nostrils flared as she said that.  
  
"You always have a choice!" She looked at him. He wanted to weep at the despair and unflinching resolve he glimpsed in her eyes.  
  
"You want to know why I am committed to this course." She whispered softly, half to herself. Adam swallowed, nodding with boyish uncertainty. Normally Adora would find his innocence cute. He was so unused to the reality of full scale war. But she had to make him understand.  
  
In a voice fraught with self-hatred and guilt, raw with pain and fury the words seemed ripped from her throat, her pupils dilating as she gazed at something he could not see.  
  
"You're wrong we don't always have a choice. Sometimes the choice is made for us. Between the village of Dwyllan and the fright zone lies a trail of small, fresh graves, each marked by a small marker in honor of the small body buried there. Aiden was seven, he had such beautiful dimples. Jerlissa, nine, she liked ponies. Kyla, eight, with the hands of a healer and a way with animals. Morgan, seven and a half, missing a tooth. Lost it fighting with his brother. Sebastian would have been eight tomorrow, tone deaf, but loved to sing. Jonathan," and here her voice quavered, nearly breaking, but coming back with a defiant strength, "Jonathan eight years old and blue. Blue because he was already dead when his parents brought him to me. Leech killed them Adam!" Nose curling in disgust, eyes narrowed in hate she was terrifying and fragile all at once.  
  
"He murdered them before they had a chance to be what they could become. But he is not alone in his guilt. The people allowed it. We warned them. I warned them. They must be made to see the truth. And if they don't want to, then I will shove it down their throats and make them choke on it!" Hands small and white balled into tight fists, trembling with fury.  
  
"If Etheria should fall it will not be because they are ignorant of the true nature of the Horde. I will show them what they truly are."  
  
"But why you? Adora are you blind? You do have a choice. Walk away." She-ra glared furiously at her brother.  
  
"Have you heard nothing?! I can't just walk away- blind? I see only all too clearly. I close my eyes and I see them in my head, Aiden, Jerlissa, Kyla, Morgan, Sebastian, Jonathan. Do you know what it is like to close your eyes and see dead children?!" Adam watched his sister struggle to put into words the tempestuous emotions inside her with compassionate regard.  
  
"No, I don't. But I do know what it feels like to think you have killed a man. It is not something you get over. You will never get over it. So before you kill Leech you think real hard about what you are doing. Because once you have killed there is no turning back from it. Ever."  
  
"Leech is not a man. He is a monster!" She seemed so fragile to him in that moment that all he wanted to do was sweep her up and carry her to Eternia with him. No one should have to hurt as she was right now. No one person had shoulders wide enough to carry the burden she was placing upon herself. But Adam was helpless.  
  
Then, before his eyes he watched his gentle sister become She-ra, the warrior maid.  
  
Her vulnerability slowly disappearing as she stood. Her back erect, her mein poised, her chin tilting at a defiant angle, a stubborn glint in her eyes.  
  
"Adam, thank you, thanks for understanding, thanks for not judging me. Thanks for believing in me." He grinned wryly.  
  
"What can I say, I'm a real prince of a guy." She smiled back.  
  
"Are we ready brother?"  
  
"Sure are." She-ra pulled her sword from her sheath. "Sorceress, can you hear me?" A beautiful woman in a Falcons headdress appeared in the jewel within her sword.  
  
"I hear you, She-ra." A faint feminine voice answered.  
  
"Adam and I are ready to return home."  
  
"Of course child of Eternia." The voice echoed. A golden portal of light appeared in front of her. She-ra looked to her brother who motioned for her to go forward. She moved through the portal. Instantly she was within the walls of Castle Grayskull. Her breath caught in awe as the wisdom of the ancients flowed around her, gentling her mind and easing her troubled soul. Adam and Cringer followed close behind. Once through the gateway, they watched as it shrank into nothing.  
  
"Greetings, Princess and to you as well Prince Adam."  
  
"Sorceress." She-ra acknowledged.  
  
"I trust that man-at-arms homing beacon worked alright?" The sorceress inquired. Adam nodded.  
  
"Like a charm. When I found her she was sleeping like a baby."  
  
"Brother, will you thank Duncan for me. Without him I don't think I could have pulled this off." Adam smiled into his sisters eyes and drew her close. Kissing her forehead.  
  
"I'll tell him. You know, if you ever need me-" She-ra nodded furiously, placing her hand over his mouth to silence him. Tears, once again charting a mindless course of sorrow down her cheeks. She was unable to speak. Adam took her wrist and kissed her hand  
  
"I don't pretend to understand what you're going through. I'm still not entirely convinced of your line of reasoning; but I trust you. I worry for you. Be safe." He released her and stepped back. The sorceress moved forward, her own eyes shimmering.  
  
"Your task is so much more difficult then He-Man's. You don't even have the support of your people behind you. I believe that is why you were chosen as the champion of Etheria."  
  
"What? Why?!" She-ra asked, confusion written across her face. The sorceress smiled a gentle smile full of timeless patience.  
  
"You are a woman. Inside of you is the steel upon which your soul is housed. You get that from your mother you know. You have the mettle and courage to do what needs to be done. Ugly and cruel though it may seem." She-ra's eyes lit with hope  
  
"Am I doing the right thing?" She pleaded.  
  
"Adora, you were chosen for this so you must follow the urgings of your own heart, for therein lies your strength. But I do know that the greatest thing a parent can do for a child is let them be free to live with the consequences of the choices they make. And in so doing give them a chance to grow strong."  
  
"Is that what I am? The mother to Etheria's people. I can't even guide myself at times let alone them!" Bitterness tinged her voice. The sorceress, raising her arms with majestic grace, let the magic of Grayskull wash over She-ra in waves of golden light. She-ra felt empowered. Focused. Strong. And for the first time hopeful and somewhat sure of the path ahead of her.  
  
"She-ra, as a champion of light and goodness and a child of light and hope, you must make the difficult decisions. In your hands rest the eternal argument; do the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few? Should you fight evil one small victory at a time or give up small battles in order to win a war."  
  
"Sorceress," She-ra pleaded, anguished, "my choices all seem so dark." The sorceress lay her hand on She-ra's cheek, as she did so She-ra felt a warm rush of energy suffuse her entire being.  
  
"Let the power return." The sorceress softly said. A vacuum opened inside her and  
  
She-ra the golden goddess of wisdom disappeared, to be replaced by Adora. "She-ra has the powers of Grayskull to give her strength; you, Adora, have the knowledge and wisdom to guide her. Your greatest asset and strength lies not in the warrior woman you become, but in the woman of passion you are."  
  
  
  
"Sorceress, I fear I may lose my way and lead my world into a never ending night! Everywhere I turn shadows nip at my heels making my reality a waking nightmare!"  
  
"Adora, princess of power and wonder, remember, everything the light touches casts a shadow. Our first impulse is often to run from the dark places in our soul. But we can never conquer by fleeing. To defeat the night within us all we must understand what we fight. You understand. Your people do not." Adora straightened her shoulders and took a steadying breath.  
  
"Your wisdom, as always helps me mark the path I must travel. I will ponder what you have said and use it as a light for my footsteps when I must tread in dark places."  
  
"I sense difficult times ahead Adora, but you will make it through as you were always meant to. A champion of light." Adora looked down, unable to look into the eyes of this wise woman who placed such faith in her. The sorceress raised an elegant hand, her blue feathered arms rustling gently. A portal opened. The one which would take her home. She stepped towards it. Then she stopped, turning to take one last look at her brother. His eyes proclaimed his love and support. As she moved through the cosmic gate which would take her home, like ice pouring over her shoulders she heard the voice of the sorceress in her mind.  
  
Do not kill using the sword of protection.  
  
She turned quickly, and met the steely-eyed gaze of the most powerful woman on Eternia and possibly in the universe. She nodded slowly, not understanding but bowing to the wisdom of Grayskulls sorceress. She stepped through the portal into Etheria.  
  
Adora's shoulders slumped as she stepped onto Etherian soil, the burden of her world weighing heavily upon her. She wasn't far from the Fright Zone, slowly she began the short trek back to the horde. 


	13. Vengeance

Chapter13; Vengeance  
  
Bing. Bing. Bing.  
  
"Jazaminut!" Adora moaned at the door. The portal opened, admitting Catra. The dark, sultry beauty of the Force captain was dimmed by the sullen look she wore whenever she addressed Adora. Adora sat up quickly.  
  
"Hmmm, are we playing dress up again Adorra?" Catra purred mockingly, eyeing the black body armor Adora was wearing, her eyes flashing jealously at just how good Adora looked in it. Adora made a disgusted sound as she reached for her face shield, the dark goggles which hid her eyes.  
  
"If you ever enter my quarters uninvited again I won't hesitate to shoot you." After putting on her mask she turned her attention totally to Catra. The cat woman shifted in discomfort. She didn't like that she could not see what Adora was feeling or thinking. She looked away.  
  
"Roww, you've already proven that. Hordack sent me. He said it is time." Adora stood swiftly, grabbing her stunners she strapped them on her thigh. Sheathing her sword at her back, she didn't bother to focus on the jealous cat woman as she exited her quarters.  
  
"Let's go." She strode swiftly from the room, leaving Catra to follow. Catra curled her ruby lips in contempt, treading closely on the heels of her new commander.  
  
Who did Adora think she was? Playing at being Horde again. All she really wanted to do was cause trouble. Normally Catra was all for doing just that. But the woman was too adept at causing her trouble. Now, just because she changed her clothes and called herself something different she thought herself a member of the horde and Catra was just supposed to sit back and tolerate it?! The cat woman burned with jealousy and anger. Hordack had always favored Adora over her and look where it got him. Adora betraying him, making him look the fool to the entire planet, leading her upstart rebellion against him- and still he took her back. Now she was intent on killing one of their own.  
  
Adora walked swiftly. Moving through the cold Iron hallways of her childhood home, with their gleaming crimson lights she stoked the fire of the rage that sustained her. She thought about Seahawk forsaking her for another woman; all those years, wasted dreaming of a man who would betray her; then she remembered the people of Grenvale, speaking words of peace, the wizard living in the tree in the crimson waste selfishly hording his magic, dwelling in his own little world while her friends bled and died to free hers. She remembered the old man from Dwyllan and his puny pleas for peace and all the people who thought they were immune to the Horde and how they turned their backs on their own planet.  
  
She dredged up all the anger and guilt she felt for underestimating Leech, she pictured in her mind the faces of each child he had killed and the faces of their parents, their mother's tears.  
  
Finally she thought of Hordack; stealing her from her parents, denying her a proper childhood, robbing her of her adult life with her family; she couldn't go home, couldn't have children, couldn't be with a man she loved and it was all his fault! His, and the fault of the unjust hand fate had dealt her. The fate of the entire planet rested on her shoulders and there wasn't a damn thing she could do about it. But she could exact vengeance on Leech for the murder of those children.  
  
The small secret core of her being which nobody touched unfurled. And all the rage kept checked inside Adora, the fury used to keep focus as She- ra was released into the mind and body of the Hordes-woman she had become. She was not Adora the rebel leader.  
  
She was Commanding General Onyx. She wanted blood.  
  
She bit her lip, jumping slightly as she unconsciously drew her own. She swallowed the coppery fluid, licking her lips. Her rage doubled. Her expression lacking animation; her muscles quivering in anticipation, every nerve ending in her body sprang to life. She emerged from the cold halls into the coliseum. Where Hordack awaited her.  
  
It was loud. The din of a thousand voices was heard as the General closed the Gap between her and Hordack. Suddenly a large Hologram of Hordack appeared over the crowd and the voices fell to a fearful hush. Hordack's inelegant snort resounded across the stadium.  
  
"Commanders, Generals, Force captains and Troopers. Today is a Great day for the Horde! Today I have defeated She-ra, the Princess of Power. Banished her from this world. She will no longer be a thorn in our backsides; and without her the rebellion will crumble." A great cheer arose from the spectators. Hordack seemed to glow at their adulation. He raised his iron fists into the air for silence and continued.  
  
"It would not have been possible if not for the help of one of their own. May I present to you the one who betrayed her to me. You once knew her as Adora." The General stepped forward. There were stunned murmers flowing through the crowd a few boos and hisses but most gazed in shocked silence at her dark clad form. Suddenly It was her form hovering above the crowd. She darted a look at Hordack. He shrugged and gestured towards her. Steeling herself she looked over the throng.  
  
There were many faces she did not recognize. And there were many that she did. Shadow Weaver hovered at the front of the stands, flanking her on either side was Catra and Mantenna. Entrapta and Scorpia huddled next to her feline nemesis. Behind them she recognized Octavia, her many tentacled arms waving around her as she spoke to an officer. Modulok and Webstor and Dylamug were in the crowd as was Tongue Lashor and General Black and many others.  
  
She raised one leather gloved hand above her head and caught her fist in it and held it there. She knew she looked impressive with her golden hair spilling over her shoulders, her breasts jutting forward, her skintight bodysuit revealing her lean, whipcord body. Not an ounce was wasted to fat. Adora trained hard to be strong, to be the best. They were gazing on the body of a warrior. She would show no weakness.  
  
"Hear me all," her voice rang, frigid, granite, empty, "Adora is no more. I am Commanding General Onyx. If you follow me I will lead you to victory- any who raise a weapon against us will fall beneath our blades. Cross me and you will fall to color my banner of terror with your blood! Behold the fate of all who oppose my will!" She gestured to Hordack who nodded to the stands.  
  
There was a disturbance as four troopers dragged Leech into the arena. Commanding General Onyx turned to face her quarry.  
  
"Nooooo!" He wailed, slobbering furiously. "No! You can't do this! I'm one of you! I'm one of you!" They threw him to his knees before their dark master. He turned his beady-eyed gaze beseeching. Beseeching machines. Robots, showing no emotion, no remorse, no pity, not even malicious glee. Leech whined throatily and groveled over to Hordacks feet.  
  
"I am a loyal member of the Horde, pl-please don't let her do this! Please mighty one!" Hordack gazed down at his minion, curling his lip in disgust. Drawing back a powerful booted foot he kicked the sniveling coward in the face. Leech cried out in pain and terror, yelping like a dog. He scurried backwards and curled up into a little ball.  
  
"Get up you coward. I'm doing you a favor." Leech peered guardedly out from beneath one arm which protected his head. Hordack continued. "It is quite simple really. Adora wants you dead. If she kills you she will lead my armies. If you kill her you may have that position." Leeches eyes lit up and he slowly uncurled.  
  
"No tricks?" He questioned guardedly. Hordack stepped back onto a metal platform and pushed a button causing the floor beneath his feet to disconnect from the arena on which he and Adora stood. Hordack rose above them and Leech turned to face his former force captain.  
  
  
  
She smiled.  
  
Terror shot through Leech at the sight of that smile. Vicious, triumphant. He was going to die. Adora drew her prodders flicking them on; they glowed evilly lighting her face with a wicked gleam. Panicking, he looked up at his lord. His voice rose an octave.  
  
"No tricks!"  
  
"Just one." Onyx replied. "Stay alive long enough to make this interesting." She laughed a low mocking laugh, causing him to straighten. Their forms were circling in the air above them a holographic mirror of the dance of death they were about to perform. Hordack threw a spear from his platform. Leech caught it easily and turned to Adora.  
  
Turned to face Onyx.  
  
  
  
The two circled, their exchange witnessed by all. Watching them it was hard to tell which was the more deadly predator. Leech was fueled by fear and greed. He knew if he lost he would die. He weighed twice as much as Adora and was powered by the genetic tampering Hordack did to so many of his warriors, explaining the muscle size. Adora was focused and calm, enveloped in the haze of a deadly rage. A formidable warrior, trained by their dark master himself. And she was on a holy crusade of justice. In her mind, they all knew, failure was unacceptable.  
  
"I weary of your cowardice scum," Onyx mocked. She spread her arms wide, "here" she taunted, "I'm open." Her voice lowered to a wicked whisper, "do me."  
  
Leech stabbed at her with the spear. She dodged lightly to the side. He swung viciously at her legs, snarling and slobbering. She jumped the spear as it swung beneath her. Serpent-like, she swiftly shot forward as he repositioned the spear. Her leg darted out, catching him in the gut. He stumbled back. She pressed her advantage, dragging the prodder down the side of his face. The skin of his cheek pussed and popped at the touch of the electric blaze; releasing a spine chilling yelp of agony, blood oozed down his face. Again she slammed the prodder this time in his chest. Where the green light touched skin blistered and popped. He wheezed desperately, bringing his arm around.  
  
Wham! The spear banged into her side. She doubled over, the spear connected again as he struck her bent spine. She fell to her knees, gasping.  
  
"Parasite!" She wheezed.  
  
"Humanoid!" He slobbed, kicking her in the abdomen with such force she bit her tongue and flew about eight feet.  
  
Blood dribbled a crimson stream down her chin by the corner of her mouth. She coughed, struggling to rise. He gave no time to recover; charging her, ready to stab her with the spear, maniacal glee shining in his eyes. She sat up on her knees. As he reached her, she twisted her trunk to the side and grabbing the shaft in her hands, she used his momentum as leverage. Allowing him to push the spear-head into the ground, as he clung to the weapon with single-minded intent, she threw him over her. He hit the ground on his back with a thud.  
  
He rolled. She stood, stumbling over to grab the prodders she had dropped when he kicked her. Turning to face him he had risen as well. The spear-shaft had broken in half. He grabbed the two pieces and started for her.  
  
"I will slice you open and feed on your entrails!" He threatened.  
  
"I will wear yours as a belt and paint my face in your blood!" She countered.  
  
He brought one of the spear halves down toward her head while aiming the other for her middle. She ducked, avoiding the blow to the head, he got her shoulder instead. Blocking the other blow with one of her prodders she rammed the other one into his side and held it there, pushing inward.  
  
He screamed. An inhuman sound of pain.  
  
She smiled, teeth flashing as she felt her green blade pierce his blue skin and his slick warm blood ooze over her gloves, warming the cool leather with his lifes essence.  
  
"Enjoy your time in hell!" She snarled through gritted teeth, "and don't worry, you won't be alone for long!" She withdrew the prodder, shoving him back. He screamed again, stumbling. She raised her arms, preparing to bring them down on either side of his head when from somewhere, Adora didn't know, he got a sudden rush of strength.  
  
Dropping the splintered shafts he grabbed her wrists in his hands and brought them down between them, squeezing painfully. She cried out as she felt him crushing bone. The prodders dropped uselessly to the floor. She had to do something quick! His foul, fetid breath warmed her neck and spittle dripped down her throat as he slurred in her ear.  
  
"I'm going to suck the life out of you and feast on your energy!" He placed his mouth at her neck. Suddenly Adora felt an electric jolt of pain spasm to her very center. It began at her throat, quickly spiraling out to the rest of her body as the monster sank his teeth into her neck and began sucking. She thought she screamed. On and on the pain lasted. An eternity. He pulled away.  
  
She was weakened, her whole body trembling in agony. He smiled at her. His pupils dilated in pleasure. Hers rolled back in panic and pain. A thousand thoughts flashed through her mind as she hovered on the cusp of life and death. She had failed. Failed her people; failed the children she had vowed to avenge! Guilt hounded at her keeping her conscious. Leech cried out his triumph to the cheering crowd. She did not see his blue form, instead she saw the couple, weeping, in the woods, their dead son at her feet  
  
"Your powers couldn't save my boy!"  
  
Howling, wildly, Adora raised her knee in a vicious arc, slamming into his groin. She felt soft flesh give, squish and pop against bone and hard Euridium crystal armored plates. His grip weakened.  
  
"Aiden liked to make things grow…" A little girls voice, child-like, pure and innocent whispered sweetly in her ear.  
  
An animalistic cry, born of guilt and rage exploded from her throat and she twisted her hands out of his grasp, slamming her head into his face. He fell backward.  
  
  
  
"Poor thing….woke up to find her daughter dead in bed, window wide open…"  
  
She kicked him in the face; once, twice! She did a squatting roundhouse kick that knocked his feet out from under him. He fell heavily. Slamming her heel into his chest, she delighted to the crunch of splintered bone.  
  
"Your powers couldn't save my boy!"  
  
Breathing heavily, chest heaving, blood drippingdown her neck from the bite wound he'd inflicted on her, it also coated her chin in a red, drippy glaze. She drew her sword from the sheath at her back. Her own voice echoing in her head. Mocking her. Taunting her. Haunting her.  
  
"Leech did exactly as I expected. He never does anything on his own. He's a coward through and through and doesn't have an original thought in his head not put there by his commander. Spiritina could take him, on a bad day, without breaking a sweat- so long as he didn't sneak up on her."  
  
  
  
Raising the sword above her head, her look was feral as he attempted to rise. He fell to his back. A gurgling squeal left his throat as he gazed at her from his servile position, raising an arm in a futile attempt at stopping fate.  
  
"Yaaaaaaar!" Bringing the Sword of Protection down on his neck, it cut clean through, disconnecting the body from the head.  
  
"Aiden liked to make things grow… Your powers couldn't save my boy… He's a coward through and through…" Adora smiled grimly through tears of guilt and pain and anger.  
  
As his body flopped to the ground, the head rolled a few feet. Bending down she rubbed her gloved fingers in his warm, wet blood. It flowed, a scarlet pool released from the fleshly dam that had once held it back. She looked on the crimson stream with detachment. Then, ripping aside her mask and hurling it to the ground she smeared it across her face and stood. In two steps she was by the head which she picked up by one leathery blue ear, unmindful of the pain streaking through her wrist at the weight of it. The face was frozen forever in a look of pure terror. Turning to the crowd she raised her sword in one hand and Leeches bloody head in the other. As she did so, thunder rumbled a distant warning from the cherry sky.  
  
Suddenly, a putrid green streak of lightning issued forth from the tip of her blade, its light illuminating the stadium, the watchers and her. A gale wind arose to blow violently through the coliseum. Her golden hair flew about her face and shoulders. Pain streaked through her arm and she cried out in shocked agony, but she could not lower her weopon as it spewed forth jade virulence.  
  
She was beautiful and terrible as the never ending night. Her golden hair and ivory skin stained a ruby red with the blood of the slain eerily increased her magnificence. As quickly as it arose the wind died. She nearly dropped her sword, staggering from the pain in her hands. From the stands a massive cheer arose. She waited for the noise to die down, as she waited Adora strode purposefully towards a weapons rack, she grabbed a long, wicked looking trident. Brutally impaling the head of her fallen enemy, she held it aloft, a proud display of her battle prowess. Her chin elevated in a mutinous angle, her voice imperious, echoed over the crowd grim and unholy.  
  
"See! And Remember! Oppose me and your head will be my next trophy. Etheria falls at my hand- by my will; we are warriors not butchers! No children may die! No innocent will be touched by a warrior of the Horde. Any that raise a hand against us will lose it, but no more children will die. Victory to the strong, to the brave, to the horde!" She cried. Again they cheered her. She stood, basking in their idolatry, expressionless, a pagan goddess of beauty and death. Proud and Bloody and Noble and deadly. None doubted her ability. None questioned her right to lead.  
  
Catra waited for someone to challenge Adora. Someone to contest her automatic leadership of Horde forces. No one did. Entrapta had conveniently moved away from her. Catra fumed inwardly while gritting her teeth in a false smile. She had planted the seeds of dissension in Entraptas ear and fueled her with enough false courage to move a mountain, even obtained her promise to challenge Adora's supremacy and now it was for naught! Adora's show had put the fear of her wrath firmly in their minds. None would soon forget that sword. Vomiting emerald lightning to the sky and raising a whirlwind. Its power was intimidating. Nor would they forget the look of flaming rage Adora had right before she took Leech's head, neither the more chilling expression of ecstasy she wore moments after severing it.  
  
Even Catra shuddered darkly in remembrance. She had always been a Horde warrior but she preferred to take prisoners and make slaves to making corpses. She had never personally killed anybody. She knew Shadow Weaver had, and Hordack had. She was unsure about Grizzlor and Mantenna although she couldn't really see Mantenna ever killing anyone.  
  
Shadow Weaver drifted over to stand at Adora's side as Hordack did the same.  
  
"I am proud of you, child." The dark enchantress hissed. She reached a scrawny fingered hand to touch Adora's hair. Adora jerked from her cold caress, bending to retrieve her mask. After donning it she whispered a few things in Weavers ear. The sorceress bowed her head in acquiescence. A black smog erupted from her fingers, embracing Leeches head then disappearing inside it as if absorbed into the skin. The stadium became silent once more as an image of Hordack appeared above them all. His voice thundering above them.  
  
"This is a new day for the Horde and the beginning of the end of the rebellion! All of you are invited into the banquet hall to feast and meet with your new leader. But first," And here he smiled, "do any of you wish to challenge Adora's claim of command?" Nobody in that whole stadium responded. Many were wary of the former leader of the rebellions savagery. Some were in awe, others, stunned, still others gratified, and many more uneasy. Hordack chuckled, snorting repeatedly. "As I thought. Come, let us feast." The throng began milling into the spacious banquet hall of the Fright Zone. 


	14. Reactions and Evil Tidings

Chapter14; Reaction and evil tidings  
  
  
  
Fuming, crossing long slender arms over her heaving chest, Catra hissed softly, seeking Entrapta in the crowd. She found her, conversing with a tall, intimidating man wearing a modified trooper suit. Catra growled contemptuously, recognizing Colonel Black. Shoving aside dignitaries and generals alike she moved to the Hordewoman's side, unmindful of the stares or comments her rudeness elicited. Not bothering to hide her disdain, she stepped between the two, giving the colonel the dubious honor of addressing her back.  
  
  
  
"Rowww, a word with you if I may, Entrapta." Catra placed a small dainty hand possessed of surprising strength on Entrapta's arms, steering her away from the colonel without so much as glancing in his direction. Entrapta allowed herself to be ushered away, not wanting to cause a scene. The evil forces of Etheria had enough to speak of without bringing her name to Hordacks attention.  
  
"Speak swiftly Catra." She snapped. "I believe I already know what you want to say." Tossing long violet hair over one shoulder, her square jaw jutting mutinously, she gazed in quiet consternation at Catra. Flowing lavender tresses twisted, swishing about with their own animation, responding to her agitation. Catra's eyes narrowed dangerously.  
  
"Why didn't you challenge Adorrra's right to lead us. She was weakened from her fight with Leech, you are strrrrong, you could have taken her." Entrapta snorted, placing large, rough hands on slender hips, she seemed oblivious to the full room around them or the buzz of hundreds of conversations. Large, intelligent eyes of alluring violet pierced Catra to her core, mesmerizing her like a rat caught in the hypnotic gaze of a hungry snake.  
  
"I did not advance this far on my looks alone," she paused, looking Catra up and down, a smile curving her lips, "as some have done;" Catra's mouth dropped in surprise. Entrapta ignored her, "nor did I get my position by making foolish choices. You're right, I probably could have taken Adora out. But Hordack obviously wants her right where she is. I am not about to interfere in his desires!"  
  
"But you could have had his entire army at your command!" Catra growled, hands clenching into balls of frustrated anger. Entrapta circled her purposefully, hard heels tapping cold floor in a predatory rhythm, long violently violet curls rising and wrapping around Catra's body, caressing her gently with the faint scent of hyacinth. Placing her hands on Catra's shoulders she leaned in low, whispering in her ear, her breath lightly dancing over the dark hairs of Catra's neck, causing her to shiver.  
  
"Pretty kitty, let me give you some advice," Luxuriant lilac locks softly slid slowly away to collapse in wild glee over her shoulders; "Leave Adora alone." She breathed, "She's dangerous. She is not the force captain we once knew. There is a streak of ruthlessness, a deep sense of focus that was never there before, if you look into her eyes you can see," Entrapta giggled, "she teeters on the brink of madness." Entrapta stepped away; Catra whirled to face her, her throat suddenly dry.  
  
"What do you mean, madness?" She purred, a calculating gleam of ambition shining in her dark eyes. Entrapta laughed, a deep huskily wicked sound, causing goosebumps to run along Catra's spine.  
  
"Just what I said. Madness!" She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. "She spent her youth training with Hordack to become an efficient killer. Though in the past she has balked at killing, just now she executed Leech without so much as a blink of remorse. She is reinventing herself," Entrapta mused, Catra found her insight intriguing.  
  
"Into what?" Catra queried. Entrapta shrugged.  
  
"Who knows? Right now she is confused, awash in anger and fear; it wouldn't take much to push her over the edge of sanity and set her adrift in her own personal chaos. As anyone who has dealt with Hordack will tell you," here, she instinctively glanced around for Mantenna, "don't get on the wrong side of crazy folk. They lean toward viciousness and can be unpredictable." Catra turned her friends words over in her mind, viewing them from every angle, jade sparks still shot from her emerald eyes but not so fiercely as before.  
  
"Rowww, it isn't right!" she pouted, "We have both served the Horde loyally and yet Adora gets all the power! Hordack has always been so good to her!" Catra threw her arms over her chest and plopped onto a small dais, created for reclining. Her lips curled forward in a sullen moue as she silently seethed in a self-righteous snit.  
  
Entrapta smiled. Tall and slender she was nevertheless not a beautiful woman. Not like Catra or Adora or even Scorpia. She had a body of hard muscles and angles, a square, masculine jaw with an unbecoming cleft. Her legs were squat, her knees knobby, her ankles thick, her thighs wide- she hated her legs! She always wore tight, heeled, thigh length boots to make her appear taller, slimmer and curvier than she was. Her waist was thick as well- though all muscle and no fat.  
  
Born to Etherian peasants, the Horde stole her from her mother when she was young and had her placed in one of Hordacks secret GMOEN labs. Genetic mutation of Etherian natives. Placing her in a DNA altering Fetal cylinder she went to sleep a child and awakened sixteen years later Entrapta. A Hordes-woman down to the genetic level.  
  
Gifted with long loose hair responding instantly to her thoughts, moods and desires, a keen intellect and hunger for knowledge and an abiding scientific interest in technology she was a formidable if inexperienced warrior. A chip implanted in her head gave her access to the vast Horde database of information and she used it to her advantage. Older than the troopers in training at the time of her release Hordack had her placed with them to learn what it meant to be Horde.  
  
She vividly remembered the day of her release. A bitter taste forming in her mouth as she relived those moments in her mind. She remembered opening her eyes in confused wonder as she straightened, covered in a thick goo, and trembling on muscles artificially enhanced but never tested. She recalled Hordack, circling her, a vaguely disappointed look on his face. He snorted, scratching his chin.  
  
"She's not as pretty as I had hoped." He bluntly stated. Entrapta was sure she would have cried and silently gave thanks to the scientists for removing her tear ducts. The chip in her head twinged.  
  
Anxiety shot through her.  
  
While giving her access to a vast computer library of information, the chip also acted as a mood master; causing euphoria when she pleased her master and anxiety when she did not. She stood, analyzing several courses of action in nanoseconds, seeking the one which would please her master according to his psychological profile. She realized her best bet would be to play on her looks and appear pretty and petty at once, she could not; Hordack had made it clear he did not find her attractive so she did the next best thing, she indulged herself in a fit of senseless violence.  
  
Her hair, so still before, shook off the glop, shooting out, grabbing the scientist sputtering at her masters side and twisting his neck, several vertebrae made satisfyingly loud popping noises. Looking to her lord she smiled, giving a little curtsy as the scientist's corpse fell to the floor. Hordack appeared surprised, he slowly smiled. Euphoria shot through her at his expression of approval.  
  
"Perhaps you can be of use to me." He mused, scratching his chin. "No sense in letting you go to waste. Follow child." Entrapta followed. She was placed in Catra's squadron. They learned side by side, fought side by side. Conquered side by side, and experienced defeat, side by side. Learning together for two years they came to know each other extremely well. Entrapta felt very strongly toward Catra, protectiveness, pity, love, envy, all combined to form strong attachments to the sensuous and delectable cat woman.  
  
Entrapta was also the only one besides Hordack who knew the full truth about Cara's existence. Not even Catra knew who she really was or of the prophecy surrounding her. Entrapta knew that if Hordack ever found out she knew so much he would have her sent off planet or eliminated. Entrapta had no desire to die and she would never wish to be off planet unless Catra came with her. The cat woman had known such little happiness- being the result of one of Hordack's psychological experiments. It was no wonder she was such a miserable bully who delighted in tormenting others. It was all she knew. All she had ever known. Compassion and caution shone in her eyes as she addressed her friend.  
  
  
  
"Pretty one, take my advice. Leave Adora be." Growling, Catra nodded sharply in acknowledgement. Shrugging her shoulders, Entrapta left Catra to her sulk.  
  
Across the room Hordack paraded Adora from one commander to another to be admired and coveted like a trophy. Everyone eventually made their way around the room to bow to their lord and their new dark commander. Shadow Weaver hung behind Hordack on his left. Ready should he require her aid, a threatening shadow at his shoulder.  
  
Her crimson form, hovering over the floor with ghostly ease, caused many to shudder in fear and distaste. She found herself wishing for the comfort of Horror hall. She hated attending these functions. Hated being stared at. Hated people. She thrilled at the terror she inspired in her underlings; but when one was universally feared by all, that one generally stood alone at parties. She took some malicious comfort in the fact that she was not the only one to be uncomfortable this night. Her slit-eyed gaze turned to Adora, sensing an emotional tempest in the girl as she struggled to absorb what she had done.  
  
Pain, Exhaustion, anxiety, elation, horror, and a vindictive little thrill of self righteous satisfaction churned in, around and through Adora as the enormity of what she had done hit her.  
  
She was a killer.  
  
She truly had become the monster she fought. Her hands throbbed in pain. She was sure they were purpling. Her neck wound stung. She ignored it. Worry over the sorceress's warning kept her stomach in knots.  
  
Do not kill using the sword of protection.  
  
She shivered in foreboding. She would have to contact the sorceress to discover the repercussions. In the heat of battle she had not thought, merely acted. That rush of lightning from her sword after killing Leech nearly took her arm off. She was frightened. Hordack merely assumed it was a play of power on her part, meant to frighten other challengers.  
  
She let him believe that.  
  
Even she was unsure of what it was or what it meant. She just had to get through this function. Then she could retreat to her chambers to think. Still dazed from her wounds and the fight, Adora had a vague idea of what she needed to accomplish before leaving. She needed protection. She needed troopers loyal to her and her alone. It was necessary she obtain the rights to that protection immediately. She could sense innumerous hostile eyes boring holes into her back. She wanted to shriek at them, 'look at me! I am evil, just like you! I have killed, just like you! What more do you want?! I am you!' She did not though.  
  
She was a warrior. None sensed or saw her inner discontent. She flashed weaver a furtive glance out of the corner of her eye; grateful for the mask that concealed the gesture. She caught the yellow-eyed witch gazing at her intently.  
  
Well, no one but her! Abruptly clearing her throat she interrupted Hordack mid sentence, she did not deign to acknowledge Octavia's look of surprised disgruntlement.  
  
"My lord, I need to choose an honor guard." Hordack motioned Octavia away, turning his attention to his protégé.  
  
"Good, good, Catra is a powerful warrior woman, she-" Adora shook her head negatively.  
  
"I wouldn't trust any one of your commanders or force captains with anything so dear to me as my own safety. I will need to see the graduating trooper recruits for this year. Feelix, Neelix and Mitsi will assist me in choosing." Hordack stiffened.  
  
"Those three clowns! May I ask why you don't trust my hordesmen?!" Adora looked at him. He loved the cold, dehumanizing effect her mask had on people.  
  
"You choose your commanders based on their aggression level, their ability to bully and innate meanness-"  
  
"We prefer to say evil, Adora." Hordack corrected."  
  
"I want warriors who fight, who know the meaning of loyalty and who will follow me, unquestioned." Hordack snorted, derisively.  
  
"We usually send those to Horde world and Horde prime. My one mistake was General Sundar." His brows shot up in disgruntled surprise, a note of whining entering his voice, "Adora are you sure, I mean look what happened with him! A trooper with a conscience, with loyalty, or ugh," he shivered in uncontrollable disgust, "decency, would not wish to work with us."  
  
"They won't be working with us," she bluntly stated, "They will be working with me. Maybe if you chose your warriors based on their abilities rather than their unkind and cross natures-"  
  
"Evil, Adora." Hordack corrected again. She continued impatiently.  
  
"You wouldn't still be fighting for this planet after twenty-six years, thereby making a mockery of the term hostile takeover." She snapped. Hordacks nostrils flared at her insolence, no one dared to speak to him that way! He stepped towards her. She remained unmoved. He reached out a hand. She did not flinch. Instead of striking her as she half expected he would, he ran his hands through her hair. Her jaw clenched. He noticed and dropped his hands, a peculiar gleam in his eyes. On anyone else Adora would have assumed it was hurt. Snorting gruffly he placed his hands behind his back.  
  
"Well, nonetheless, welcome home, Adora. It will be done. Tomorrow you may choose your honor guard. I will escort you myself-"  
  
"No. The triplets will help me. You will renew our offensive against the rebels." Hordack could read no emotion in her stilted voice. "dig a trench around the whispering woods. Have your robots do it, I don't care, just get it done. Then set up a blockade of tanks around the woods, place a mine field in the ocean off the shore of the beach along the entire stretch of the woods. That way no ships may go in and no people may come out. Any rebels still in the woods will die in that prison of life and light." Adora felt no remorse at issuing the order. She was well aware the woods were empty save for the twiggets and many women and children who stayed behind. Those she knew had plenty to live on.  
  
"Brilliant." Hordack praised her effusively. "I would have done the same myself years ago but I chose to await your return." She shot him an unfathomable glance, he could read nothing beneath her mask.  
  
Suddenly Hordack's face positively lit up as his eyes landed on a vision of earthy beauty behind her.  
  
"Ahh, Adora, I have a surprise for you," he murmured, excitement evident in his quivering voice- "ooh and I must say my dear you look simply beautiful!" His remark was addressed over her left shoulder. A tinkling laugh raised chills on Adora's arm as a familiar voice lightly chided Hordack.  
  
"Mighty Hordack, how dare you hoard this beautiful child all to yourself!" Adora woodenly turned, her knees buckling as her unbelieving eyes fell upon an exquisitely horrifying sight. Reaching out with numbed fingers she grasped Hordack's bone collar as a life line. Raising an arm to steady her, a smile played across his face at her display of weakness. A warm feeling he didn't quite recognize rushed over him as Adora turned to him for support.  
  
Dazed, she looked up at her dark lord. Shock and bewilderment coloring her perceptions in a sick gray fog of incomprehension. She was hot and cold all at once  
  
By the first ones, she hurt! She yearned for sleep, blessed oblivion and refuge from the reality haunting her. Surely, she thought in despair, her eyes were deceiving her, playing a cruel trick on her due in large part to her exhaustion.  
  
Hordack nodded encouragement. He would not allow her to ignore this. Steeling herself, biting her lip to keep from whimpering, she reached out a leather gloved hand which trembled only slightly, to acknowledge the traitorous murderer standing before her.  
  
She winced in pain as the woman lightly squeezed her wrists. She should probably have a meditech heal her- but she couldn't quite think past the buzzing sound in her ears or the brunette vision standing before her, sporting a set of very familiar wings crudely stitched to her tunic.  
  
They stunk of death.  
  
"Adora- should I say Onyx? I have always felt a strange kinship to you, like me you have tasted both sides of the fruit of free will. Now, like me, you have chosen the sweet. Welcome my dear." Melog's smile was warm and generous. Hordack grinned with wicked humor. He placed a meaty hand on her shoulder.  
  
"With you on our side leading our troops to victory and Melog- our own version of She-ra we will be unstoppable!" He shuddered in evil rhapsody, "oh, the havoc we will raise!" He began laughing in evil delight. Melog rolled her eyes at Adora. Someone, Adora thought it was her but she was unsure addressed Melog with polite courtesy.  
  
"About the wings you wear-" Melog preened, pirouetting before Adora's dark regard. Huge, beautiful, golden and orange and sienna wings sprouted from the back of the short tan tunic she wore, a tunic which mirrored She- ra's in design if not color. She even wore a brown headdress like she- ra's, made of bronze. Brown boots completed the ensemble making her appear a winged, earthen version of the Princess of power.  
  
"I obtained these delightful adornments from an old friend. She won't be needing them where she is now." Melog dimpled prettily.  
  
Adora turned away. Her breath coming in deep, sharp, shallow gulps.  
  
She realized she was still clutching Hordack and now her face was pressing against his chest as she struggled for oxygen. He was smiling. She thrust him away as if burned. Shaking her head in horror she bowed to Hordack and strode swiftly from the hall. She heard Melogs distinctive laugh echoing behind her as she escaped to her room.  
  
Bile burning her throat, tears rushing down her face, her thoughts jumbled and incoherent. Unaware of her surroundings; feet fled on fragile strength over a remembered course to her room, her mind reeling in dark places far beyond the path she trod.  
  
She was a killer twice over.  
  
She killed Leech in rage- and Flutterina, a beautiful and gentle friend went to her death following one of her last orders as a rebel leader. A harsh sob tore from her throat as she stumbled through the corroders to her chambers. She stifled it quickly remembering walls had ears and to show weakness was to invite doom. Her whole body trembled with her anguish and rage, her desperate sorrow and guilt.  
  
She found herself wondering could freedom truly be worth this cost? Her hope was gone. Her faith was spent Her energy drained.  
  
It was too much. All of it. She had to escape. Had to be free. Free of her own tormented musings!  
  
A bruised hand slammed into the security console outside her door. Pain shot through her hands in searing molten streaks of orange lightning behind her closed eye-lids.  
  
Blip-blip.  
  
The metal monstrosity slid aside. She ripped her mask from her face, the stark pallor of her high cheek bones stood out in vivid ivory relief against the shadowed backdrop of her room. The cold, unfeeling door slid shut behind her. A dark mask slid from lifeless fingers as she collapsed to her knees with a jarring crash. Blood dried to a dark brown, stained her hair and face. She didn't care. She was cold.  
  
She was so cold.  
  
Flutterina was dead.  
  
She was probably cold too. Adora raised a trembling hand to her clammy head. Then, putting her gloves to her mouth she began ripping and pulling them off. She needed to feel skin. Warm living skin.  
  
She felt dead inside.  
  
She mewled quietly, suppressing panic threatening to overcome her and spiral beyond her ability to control. She wasn't dead! Was she?  
  
Somebody Help Me! She screamed. She thought she screamed. Her room echoed in shades of shadows and silence.  
  
The glove came off. She flung it across the room. She cried out, a harsh, ragged deep-throated sound. Tearing the other glove off she threw it as far from her as she could. Scooting backward, pressing her spine to the wall she placed chilled digits on the side of her face. Uncaring that blood dripped from two fingers where teeth had punctured skin down the side of her cheek. The blood was warm but her hands were ice.  
  
A keening cry ripped from her throat. She pressed clammy hands to her mouth to stifle the eerie sound.  
  
She was cold. Why was it so cold? Her fingers. Her hands. Her face. All were numb with cold. Dead people were cold. Was she dead? She felt dead. Inside. Whimpering, shaking her head in denial she tried to stand. She needed to feel alive. She needed to be warm.  
  
She couldn't move.  
  
Cradled between the cold steel walls of her room and her own inner hell, her limbs felt stiff and frigid. Maybe she was dead. Sapphire eyes glazed over in mindless acceptance to gaze into a somewhere only she could see.  
  
Her dark shadowy room slowly began to flood with a gentle spectrum of shifting and arching colors as Etheria's guardian, sensing her danger, sped to her side. Light Hope's image appeared before her. His voice echoing urgently in her mind, struggling to pierce the cold dark place of despair her mind had retreated to with his warm presence of hope and love.  
  
  
  
Adora! He cried. Adora! Adora! Urgent concern rang in his wise voice. Adora remained passive and unresponsive. She felt herself being lifted into the air by two strong arms but she couldn't seem to care enough to find out whose they were.  
  
Adora, awaken! Lighthope's voice swept through her mind. Why bother? She thought dimly. She felt the man bearing her body wrap her in blankets, soft and warm, it was too late. She smiled. You can't warm a corpse. She giggled lightly, waving towards the person trying to revive her. A strong callused hand, warm and alive caught and held her own. A warm cloth was placed on her face.  
  
Adora…we need you… your world will fall without you… Lighthope's plea arched through the shroud of despair pressing her mind, lifting her up from the darkness. She frowned. Didn't he know she was already dead? She decided she better let him know.  
  
"Too late…" she thought she whispered, "leave me in peace."  
  
Of a sudden a warm glow surrounded her pushing back the encroaching night struggling to claim her soul. She thought it was light hope. Her nose twitched in confusion. Here? In the fright zone? Two strong and loving arms snaked a warm and secure grip around her, two muscled legs twined with hers. A distinctively human warmth cradled her against a strong, warm chest smelling musky, and faintly of bay leaves and sweat, not an unpleasant aroma. The human heat coupled with Lighthope's magical warmth struggled to pull her back from the brink of some terrible and ugly abyss. Her face was slapped as she fought it. She didn't want to come back. Didn't want to face what she had become or what she knew she had to do!  
  
"C'mon, Adora, wake up!" A deep and anxious voice peeled away at the darkness consuming her. "Wake up, baby, wake up! Don't you die on me! You here me! Dammit, Adora wake up!"  
  
Suddenly, she felt her spirit pulling away from her body, pulling up and away from the dark, frigid cocoon into which it had retreated. All around her a rainbow of light appeared. In front of her a shining coruscation of white vibrant light energy beckoned her forward. It emitted an effulgent aura of welcoming and love. Adora smiled, stepping toward the light.  
  
Then she saw them.  
  
Six small, shadowy forms, all hooded, garbed in robes of purest white, the purity of which hurt her eyes to gaze upon, she raised a hand to her brow, shielding her corona's from their brilliance. Each glowing form held a candle. They stepped in front of her, blocking her way to the light. She arched her hand in angered denial.  
  
"Stand aside!" She commanded, her voice shaky and unsteady with longing and yearning. The shadows had faces. The faces had names. Soulful eyes rose from upturned cherubim to gaze on Adora. She stepped back in guilty fear. They lifted their candles to her as if in supplication. One by one the flames flickered and winked out as a dark wind blew through the rainbow, chilling the otherwise warm air. A little girl stepped forward. She had white hair and soulful eyes of deepest jade. Adora recognized her as Jerlissa. She spoke in a slight lisp.  
  
"Adora awake. Please don't let our lives and deaths have been for nuffing! You took Leeches life true, but our people our not united. We are not one. We are not free. Free our world Adora. Go back." Adora gazed on this last torment in angry frustration. She reached out her hand to touch the little girls cheek.  
  
"I can't!" She cried, anguished. "I have betrayed my people! I have killed too many. Their blood- your blood! It is on my hands! They are forever stained!" Her despair dimmed the rainbow around her. The white robed children stepped back. Then, a shimmering shadow surrounded in a rosy-hued gloriole emerged from the white light radiating love and gentle entreaty.  
  
Flutterina stepped into view.  
  
Adora began crying, sobs without sound, her pain too deep and wrenching for words or noise. Tears fell in a heated torrent, fierce and unstoppable; uncontrollable emotional flotsam and jetsam crashing, colliding and crumbling against the cold arctic waves of an unforgiving reality she could not simply wish away.  
  
"I'm sorry." She whispered in despair, "I'm so sorry. My friend." Adora could not meet the butterfly maidens eyes so she gazed at the ground instead. Flutterina took Adora's face in her hand and tilting it ever-so- gently upwards she made Adora gaze into her uncondemning eyes. They were soulful and gentle and completely lacking of blame.  
  
  
  
  
  
Then, she did a marvelous thing, Flutterina sweetly bent towards her and kissed her soft supple lips. A light fluttering contact, ever-so-brief in time but seeming to last an  
  
eternity filling Adora with peace and wonder. Flutterina's forgiveness washed over her in healing waves of splendor. Adora had not realized she closed her eyes until she opened them to see Flutterina, a dainty Angel of joy, backing away, a smile ablaze with love and majesty warming Adora's frosted soul as she disappeared into the light she came from. Adora's fingers went to her lips in wonderment.  
  
Then, the rainbow lights around her began coalescing into beings. Men and woman, proud and noble, wisdom blazing from eyes like fire to cleanse her spirit and make her new. They spoke as one in her mind.  
  
Daughter of Destiny your task is not complete. It is difficult but you may not run. On you the hope of the future resides. Free your people. Unite them and free them. Adora awake and rouse your world to hope! Open your own heart to hope! Your road is difficult. Commit yourself. Do not waver. Finish what you have begun…thus is the will of the first one's….  
  
Then, they vanished.  
  
She turned to the small shadows of the children Leech had killed. She saw them, waiting on the edge of the light. She moved to her feet, walking towards them. Compassion twisting her insides, she knelt beside the girl.  
  
"Why don't you move into the light. It will take you home. It is where you belong." They shook their heads stoically. Jerlissa looked into Adora's eyes, a child's stubbornness gleaming in their depths.  
  
"We will keep vigil over our world until you free it. If you come back, we will stop you again. We will remind you that your duty is to your people." Adora sat back, a little stunned. Jerlissa crammed her thumb in her mouth. Morgan stepped forward and gently placed a chubby arm on Adora's shoulder. The air whistling through his missing tooth as he spoke.  
  
"We ask much, but you our only hope. Please, save my mum and da'." Adora nodded. Then, like a shock of cold water, the voice of light hope was in her mind, bursting over her in radiant waves of wonder and heat.  
  
Awake Adora! Opening her eyes, she gasped.  
  
"Praise be the first ones!" A distraught voice cried. Adora found herself in Bow's arms, in her room in the fright zone.  
  
"Bow?" She wheezed, her voice light and whispery as though it had not been used in forever.  
  
"Adora," he whispered, wonder painted across his face, "I thought I had lost you! You were so cold, I tried warming you with my body-" His voice broke, "I felt you die in my arms." He pulled her close, not letting her up. At the moment Adora wouldn't have moved for anything. She was weak. But she was warm and safe. She felt Bow's arms tighten around her.  
  
And she was loved. She snuggled down into his arms and closed her eyes letting sleep claim her. She was exhausted. She would let the dawn sort things out. For now she felt secure. Safe, at peace. She slept. 


	15. Mystacor's Queen Moves

Chapter15;Mystacors Queen moves  
  
  
  
Salty spray flew in gentle abandon from sapphire waves with ivory curling caps to lightly mist over Castaspellas strong, supple body. Her hair blew wildly in the wind, flowing sienna locks billowing in an untamed orgy of tangles. She loved the way the ship rocked beneath her feet, the smell of salty sea air, the cry of gulls and the crash of water onto the hull.  
  
Her spell was cast. Mystacor was safe. She had a spiritual link to Netossa who in turn was linked to the palace where all the spells were kept. Her city was safe. As safe as any could be in these times. A tall young woman with honey-gold hair walked silently to her side, dimming Casta's good mood. Her smile slipped. The girl seemed not to notice.  
  
"From my first day aboard an ocean-going vessel, I knew you'd love it." The girl remarked. Casta remained silent. The girl turned hazel eyes to the sorceress's face, seeking a hint at what she was feeling.  
  
"You know, Casta, I have apologized for leaving you for the Sea Hawk." Castaspella's eyes flashed angrily as she turned to Ariel, her former apprentice.  
  
"You think a simple apology will make it alright?" She hissed angrily. "You were Adora's friend. You were my apprentice. I spent seven years teaching you the ways of magic and you threw it aside for a man!" She spat the last with unconcealed scorn. "You betrayed more than me, you betrayed a woman who never did you any harm-"  
  
"Wrong, Casta!" Ariel snapped. "I did not betray Adora, Sea Hawk did! And it was not something he did frivolously or lightly. He loved her!"  
  
"Then why?!" Casta retorted hotly. Ariel looked away.  
  
"I admit, I was attracted to him from the first. His body, his lifestyle," she smiled fondly, "his maleness. He didn't even realize it. At first. But when Shadow Weaver put that spell on us-" Castaspella glanced at her sharply, grabbing her upper arm in a tight grip.  
  
"What spell?" Ariel glanced pointedly down at Casta's grip. When she did not let go she yanked her arm away. Rubbing the bruise forming on her limb, she glared, angrily, at Castaspella.  
  
"It was a mind link. She thought to cause enough chaos that Hawk would wreck his ship and the supplies he was carrying to the rebels at Talais, the port town near the Shaddamite plains wouldn't make it."  
  
"There are rebels already in Shaddamite?" Castaspella asked, surprised. Ariel nodded impatiently.  
  
"The world is larger than the whispering woods and Mystacor." Ariel remarked sarcastically before returning to her story. "At first neither of us knew what was happening. A dark squall appeared just off the bow, thoughts began randomly appearing in our heads and neither of us knew where they were coming from. Sea Hawk managed to avoid the storm mostly but as my fear heightened so did his sense of confusion. Fritz had to take command. A thought appeared in my mind, it was urgent, it told me I had to take the helm. It drove me from the safety of my cabin and as I made my way to the front of the ship a wave crashed over the side- pulling me overboard. Hawk felt my panic. It was like suddenly he knew it was me and I needed him. He jumped ship to save me. We washed ashore on a deserted island and we knew each others every thought."  
  
"But he still loved Adora?" Casta interrupted. A pained expression came over Ariels face.  
  
  
  
"Yes. He knew how I felt, but he was loyal to her. However we were on that island a long time with no one else to talk to, we depended on each other for survival and we knew each other's every thought, every emotion as if it were our own. It became hard to distinguish who was feeling what. Gradually as we came to know each other better, my infatuation turned to love. He began softening as well. Then he left me."  
  
"What do you mean 'he left you'." Casta sked not understanding. Ariel shrugged, gazing out over the ocean. "He left me alone. He filled his mind with images of him and Adora. Of how he wanted to spend his life with her. Casta, I hurt so bad!" Castaspella looked on her former apprentice with new understanding. Ariel continued.  
  
"I don't know if you could possibly understand. I was totally in love with him. I loved him so much that his pain inside was tearing me up. He wanted to be with Adora, not me, but my feelings pounded at him every day and he could not deny that he found me physically attractive and admired the ease to which I had adapted myself to the rugged life the island demanded of us both. I tried to fight his love for her with images of me and him together. He fought back. I loved him enough to give him up, so I told him to come back to me. I told him I would no longer try to come between him and Adora, but that I didn't want to be alone anymore."  
  
"Well, obviously you didn't keep your promise," Castaspella snorted, "or he caved in, men are always so weak." Ariel reached up a hand lightning fast and slapped Castaspella hard across her face. Castaspella raised a hand to her cheek in stunned surprise. Ariel was seething in outrage, her eyes emitting sparks of fury.  
  
"Don't you dare defame him to me! He is the most honorable, most courageous, most noble man I know! You were not there, you did not feel his pain or mine! What right have you to pass judgment on me!" Castaspella's brows shot up as she regarded Ariel with newfound respect.  
  
"I have no right to judge you. None at all. Forgive me." Ariel didn't appear the least bit mollified so she turned angrily away. Her story coming out in short angry sentences.  
  
"He came back. Things went on as normal. We were friends. He got hurt. I healed him. As I did so, I saw the images going through his mind." Her voice lowered to a whisper of shame. "He thought I was Adora. He was delirious, feverish. I…I let him make love to me thinking I was the woman he dreamed of." She stopped speaking, for a moment Castaspella didn't think she would continue. When she did, she chose her words with more care and precision. "He healed and I… I couldn't face him. He knew; I could not hide my shame or deceit from him. So I hid myself. I felt his anger, his sense of betrayal. I despaired of ever recapturing the bond we once had. I couldn't go on. The man I loved with all my soul despised me. I could not escape his scorn, could not even deny I deserved it. I couldn't bare it any longer. I tried to kill myself."  
  
Castaspella hissed sharply. The sacredness of life was one of the first tenants taught by her to her apprentices.  
  
"Ariel… how could you-" Ariel turned a passionate glare on her teacher.  
  
"You could never understand! You have never loved as I love him! He hated me! I just wanted the hurt to end. For days I eluded him. He tracked me through the jungles of the island, but he is no magi. I went to the topmost cliff on the island, ready to hurl myself out of the eye of history forever. I'm not sure what changed him. But when he felt my sorrow and shame and agony as his own he realized I truly loved him. He also knew me inside and out. He knew I was no malicious woman out for a ride. As I moved to the cliff, I spread my arms wide to embrace my fate and he appeared in my mind. He told me life was too precious to throw away. He said my life was too precious to throw away. He said I was too precious to him. If I were to plunge over that cliff he would follow me into death just to be with me."  
  
Castaspella wanted to weep. It was truly love that bound her apprentice to the Sea Hawk. But that love had proven disastrous. It was in part due to the Sea Hawks betrayal that Adora had proven so vulnerable at the time of Leech's atrocities. Starting her on a course she was now committed to. Castaspella had conferred with the first ones on the spiritual plane and they endorsed Adora's course as the clearest, quickest way to freedom, providing that she not falter. Casta sighed, glancing at her apprentice with envy.  
  
"Enjoy what little happiness you can Ariel. For soon darkness will entomb us all in her grasp. Onyx rides against us." Ariel shivered at Castaspella's bleak tone.  
  
"You mean Adora?" Castaspella's fathomless eyes bored into her former student's with dramatic intensity. Ariel flinched at the haunted expression in their wide, almond depths.  
  
"No, Ariel. Adora is no longer among us. For the sake of her sanity and the good of our people, Adora has had to become the Hordeswoman Onyx. We can expect no quarter." Ariel squared her shoulders resolutely.  
  
"Then if necessary we will eliminate Onyx." Castaspella shook her head.  
  
"If Onyx dies, Etheria will die as well. I don't know how, but Adora is our only hope. It is her will that decides the fate of us all. We are pawns in this game fate has decreed for us, but she-" Castaspella paused, glancing at her feet in thoughtful contemplation, "she is the queen." 


	16. Not so Alone

Chapter 16; Not so Alone  
  
  
  
Bow lay silently, cradling Adora in his arms, watching the play of light dance over her hair as day pierced the crimson sky above for a few brief moments, before retreating from the inhospitable domain of waste. Her porcelain cheek lay pressed against his chest as she lay half over him, one arm slung around his middle, the other resting beneath his shoulder. Her warm breath blew gently and evenly over his skin. A strange and protective surge of warmth rose up in his chest, forming a lump in his throat as he held her.  
  
It was unfamiliar but not unwelcome.  
  
Never before had Bow felt like this. He loved women. He loved beautiful women- loved watching the way their bodies moved and arced and bounced in all the right places; the way their hair fell over their shoulders and swayed in a gentle motion- opposite their curved and sensuous backside; the way they walked, fluid and smooth and full of grace or bouncy and bubbly and bursting with energy. He adored the way they always smelled clean and fresh and often scented with some floral mist, feminine and exotic. He enjoyed the way they were shaped and formed, slender and lithe, rounded and soft, small and delicate- but strong; he enjoyed being with them. But he never felt with another as he did now with Adora.  
  
Impatiently awaiting her return to her chambers the night before so he could convince her of her madness, her folly, the insanity of her course of action, he vowed if she did not leave willingly he would take her out of there, forcibly if necessary. Then she stumbled over the threshold and into her room, a look he couldn't understand painting her face in human drama. Pain. Despair. Denial. Grief. He watched from the shadows as she crawled a few paces, struggling to rise, he wanted to go to her but was unsure of her problem. Then she gave up; she quit, curling into a small ball she became still and lifeless and fragile. He would never forget the panic, the overwhelming sense of wrongness filling him the moment she stopped moving. It was eerie, he felt as if someone in the room with him was urging him to take action.  
  
Rushing to her side, he scooped her into his arms, shocked to find her body frigid to the touch. He tried reviving her, calling her name, slapping her lightly, to no effect. Quickly he stripped her of her clothes and taking off his boots and breastplate climbed into bed with her beneath the thermal blanket. He tightly wrapped her in the cocoon of his embrace, offering every ounce of his own warmth to heat her, chills racked his muscular body as he prayed to a god he didn't really believe in to revive her! Never giving up, he rubbed her chilled skin with his hands, massaging her limbs roughly with his own, hoping the friction would add to the warmth of his body. She seemed to sense his desperate need, briefly, then she died; no breath, no movement, no life, no heartbeat.  
  
In anguish, Bow cried out her name, begging her to return, but there was no one to hear his helpless plea. He shared his breath with her, willing her to absorb his life force as her own, his warm smooth lips pressed over her cool airless mouth in a vain attempt to retrieve her from the darkness that had stolen her from him.  
  
To no avail.  
  
Looking on her beauty, as perfect in death as in life he realized he never told her how he felt. Never told her because even he himself had not realized the extent of the emotions churning through him.  
  
He loved her.  
  
Deeply, passionately, to the exclusion of all else. She was his first thought as he woke in the morning and his last as he settled to sleep. When he closed his eyes hers was the smile he saw in the dark behind his lids.  
  
Tears fell in a salty, fiery flood of heart-hurt distressed denunciation as he rocked her lifeless form, smacking and shaking and rubbing her body, willing her to wake, to rise to live, to be aware! He called her name; an invocation of defiant denial, he demanded first then begged whatever force oversaw such things to return her to consciousness, to life, to him!  
  
Sadly, as too often's the case, his prayers, wishes, heartfelt pleas and angered demands met with unfeeling silence that seemed to rebuff him making the request. With the most tender care, as hope fled his heart leaving him raw, aching, empty of all save sorrow and shocked suffering he smoothed away an errant strand of golden hair stained bronze with dried blood from her porcelain features. Using the blanket as a cloth he gently swabbed the sienna streak of dried blood- moistened by his heartache, from her angelic face, leaving it pure and clear in tragic nobility. Reverently he placed the gentlest of kisses upon her smooth brow; shattering inside.  
  
Then she inhaled. Her eyes barely flickered open as warmth slowly returned to her body and hardly aware of him she snuggled into his embrace to fall into a tranquil sleep.  
  
He knew not what miracle brought her back to him, but by the first ones he would not waste the opportunity to win her heart. Holding her now he felt complete somehow. There was a rightness to it. Their future was uncertain, but one thing was not. The love he held in his heart for the woman he held in his arms.  
  
She inspired him to reach further, to try harder, to dig deeper and see clearer than he otherwise would. She was his highest reverence. She made him more than he was without her. His brow furrowed in anxiety and a frown darkened the joy that had previously lit his eyes with fervent flames of ebullience. Her logic regarding her loyalties was flawed- in this, she was wrong. He had to convince her.  
  
Though he adored her, though he would give his everything for her, in striving to be worthy of her he realized his world took precedence over his feelings. The freedom of an entire planet was at stake. He eased himself from beneath her. His body cried out, his stomach knotted, protesting his actions, yearning for her presence once more. He ignored it, pulling on his cape and breastplate and lacing up his boots. He waited for his woman to awake.  
  
He grinned at that thought- Adora would probably never take kindly to being labeled anyone's woman. She was simply too independent for that. Placing his hands behind his head he leaned back in his chair to wait for her to rise. He decided he admired that most about her. Her strength, her willingness to do what her heart told her to do- even when the world told her she was wrong. Adora allowed none to command her. Bow just hoped she would allow him to walk at her side.  
  
  
  
Adora slowly cracked open one sleep encrusted eye, then the other. Moaning softly she stretched her arms up over her head, extending her legs as far as they would go and arching one foot into a delicate point. She felt the sleepiness in her limbs ooze slowly out of her and brought one hand up to pick the sleep from her eyes. A breeze moved over her bare shoulders and leg and she shivered in delicious delight at its cleansing feeling. Her eyes popped wide in alarm as she realized she was naked. She looked to her side, releasing a soft squeal of surprise as her eyes landed on Bow's smirking face. Her brows drew together sharply in wrath. She didn't recall how she ended up nude, but she didn't like Bow's knowing smile.  
  
She decided to rid him of it.  
  
Clutching the sheet tight against her breasts she slid from her bed to the floor and in one swift, fluid motion knocked the chair from beneath him. Falling backwards he landed with a jarring crash as she arose from the floor.  
  
"Owww! By the first ones- Adora what did you do that for?!" Bow clumsily rolled over to his knees, smiling wickedly at the sweet taste of revenge she placed a dainty, naked foot on his rear and sent him face-first into the floor. He rolled to his back, angry now, ready to object vehemently to her unkind behavior when the words stuck in his throat as his eyes feasted upon her golden splendor.  
  
She stood legs braced apart, wrapped in an ivory sheet barely hinting at the beauteous curves beneath it, her hair in tangled disarray, hung enticingly over one sapphire eye and stuck up charmingly in the back, her cheeks flushing in indignation and rosy lips full from sleep made her appear pixie-like and sinfully piquant; eyes blazed in irritation as she questioned him.  
  
"Bow," she snapped, "where are my clothes and how in the hell did I end up out of them?" She arched one brow at him imperiously. She appeared pagan goddess and innocent maid all at once. The love in his heart flared to fullness inside him once again, but he merely stood, so she could not look down on him. His cocky smile back in place.  
  
"I removed them for you." Adora, gritting her teeth in outrage, kicked him. Hard. In the shin. He began madly hopping on one foot, cursing softly, massaging his outraged leg in an effort to alleviate the pain. This was not going at all as he had imagined. He had assumed Adora would awaken and fall into his arms, thanking him for saving her life, instead she was beating him up for taking off her clothes. He hopped over to her bed and sat down.  
  
"Adora, stop being so violent, I don't think I can handle it. I saved your life." She wrinkled her nose in confusion.  
  
"What? How is you getting me naked saving my life?"  
  
"You were in shock when you came to your quarters last night. I had been waiting for you, I had every intention of reaming you up one wall and down the other and making you see the error of your ways so you would come back to the rebellion. But you were freezing and fast losing consciousness. The quickest way to warm someone is to use body heat. So I did that." He looked away, slightly miffed at the look of dawning horror on her face.  
  
"Ohmygosh! You mean you- and I- oh god!" She sat next to him putting her burning face in her hands. "Bow I-I-"  
  
"Adora," Bow snapped, "I'm your friend. I wasn't about to let you die." She seemed to come to herself.  
  
"I know…It's just… I'm a little embarrassed you saw me so weak. I have to be strong. I can't afford to show any weakness. Especially now." She seemed to be talking more to herself then him, he gripped her shoulder, forcing her to look at him.  
  
"Adora, that's ridiculous. Your human, your not a machine. You can't be strong all the time." Looking at him she realized he didn't know why the desperate misery nearly stole her will to live, why she had almost died. Unexpectedly, tears flooded her eyes.  
  
"Adora, what's wrong?" Bow asked in concern. She reached up, angrily wiping the tears with the back of her hand.  
  
"Flutterina is dead." She uttered harshly. Bow's face whitened. His jaw tightened.  
  
"Why? How?" Adora laughed, a dry mirthless sound that ended on a choked sob.  
  
"Melog. She-ra gave her life and she has used it to serve Hordack. Before I quit the rebellion I told Flutterina to find Melog and bring her back to us…It's all my fault… she's dead and I may as well have killed her myself." Bow stiffened angrily.  
  
"Dammit Adora, I am getting a little sick and tired of you always blaming yourself for things beyond your control." Adora's eyes flashed angrily and she tried to pull away from him, but he was having none of it, his fingers gripped harder. "I want you to listen and listen good! You are the kindest most compassionate person I know. You take responsibility for the lives of those you have no right to take. Flutterina was a rebel. If she is dead, she died for what she believed in! For what she fought for and thought was right. Those children did not die because of Adora, they died because of a monster named Leech!"  
  
"But I underestimated him, it was my fault he went for them-"  
  
"Oh Adora, grow up! Your only human, you are not a god! Do you think in joining the Horde you honor their memory? Do you think you do what they would have wanted you to do by betraying your friends and leading your enemies to victory? How are you any different than Melog?!" He was yelling at her, his eyes spitting sienna sparks. She smiled. Her first real smile in weeks. Reaching up she cupped his face in her hand. She had only meant to connect with him as a friend, but when her skin touched his a current of awareness shot through her hand, up her arm and throughout her body. She could tell by the way he had stopped breathing and his eyes widened he felt it as well.  
  
"Oh dear…" she uttered breathlessly, cheeks flushing at the unexpected bolt of desire.  
  
He leaned forward, claiming her lips in a hungry kiss of repressed passion and energy. Time stopped for Adora, lost all meaning. The world seemed to melt away as her arms snaked around his neck and he pulled her tightly to him, rolling her to her back.  
  
His lips were warm and soft against her own, his breath, ragged, his taste, tangy. Sparks of sensation shot through her entire body, radiating out from her stomach, her chest, racing up and down her limbs with fevered longing, where his skin touched hers she came alive with want, with desire. Tentatively she traced his upper lip with her tongue. He moaned softly, she giggled into his mouth, the wonder of the experience washing over her in waves of passion and pleasure and tingling. Her toes curled in mystified delight at the unfamiliar sensations. He pulled away from her to gaze into her eyes. He looked on her with such tenderness she wanted to weep at the pleasure.  
  
To be cherished like this was bliss. Then he stood. Rising swiftly, Bow began gathering her stuff in a bundle; she frowned, the fog of desire clearing quickly as she watched him in confusion.  
  
"Ummm, Bow, what are you doing?" She asked him curiously. He didn't look at her as he answered.  
  
"I'm packing your gear so we can get out of here." She sat upright, the sheet fell from her chest, she gasped, he didn't notice, she sighed in relief and tugging the material back up she stood and placed her hand on top of his, he looked to her in confusion.  
  
"Bow I'm not going anywhere." His mouth dropped in surprise. She continued. "Bow I have a job to do. I will unite Etheria. Already word of what I have done has spread. The rebellion is even now fanning out across the planet recruiting more freedom fighters to their cause. The time for action has come."  
  
"Adora," Bow groaned, a frustrated growl escaping him, "Hordack is the bad guy, you are the good guy, if you want to free your people then you must fight with the good guys- that's me." He spoke to her in exaggerated patience, she frowned her eyes flashing.  
  
"I won't debate the point with you Bow. My mind is made up. If I lead Horde forces I can ensure minimum casualties. I can also teach the people a much needed lesson."  
  
"What's that," Bow sneered, angry at her obstinacy, "do it Adora's way or no way?" Her eyes flashed a warning at him.  
  
"Don't be an ass! Etherians won't fight together for something they don't believe in. Right now they don't believe in their freedom because those who have it take it for granted and those who don't have lost all hope. If we are going to win this war against the horde we must be united as one people. Fighting for our collective freedom and not squabbling over petty differences. I intend to show those who take freedom for granted what life as a slave to the horde is like. Once they have lost their freedom, it will become precious to them then they can be roused to fight. Those who have lost all hope," here she smiled at Bow, "well, it is your job and that of the rebellion to rekindle it for them."  
  
"Adora," Bow said quietly, seriously, "I love you. You mean more to me than any person in my life, I have never loved anyone this much since my parents-" he frowned thoughtfully before amending himself- "except Cowl; but I won't allow you to steal the freedom from my people, my planet, my world." Adora stood. Her voice deceptively soft.  
  
"You won't allow?" Bow broke out in a sweat realizing his mistake.  
  
"What I meant was-"  
  
"You have no business allowing or disallowing me anything! I have told you my reasons for doing what I do. It is your choice to accept them and believe in me or not. But I will not be moved. My course is set; my destiny clear, and you- you overbearing lout, you can just allow yourself out of my room so I can allow myself into my clothes!" Her breasts were heaving in anger, her face flushed in fury.  
  
"Adora-"  
  
"Get out! If you can't believe in me- fine! But I know what I do is right! For the greater good! I believe in you Bow, I believe in the rebellion, but most of all, I believe in myself. I am doing more good here than I could do leading a half-hearted rebellion in a half-hearted attempt to reclaim their world from a whole-hearted tyrant." Bow's face flushed angrily at her calling the rebellion half-hearted when he had put his entire heart and soul into it for six years.  
  
"I can see there is no reasoning with you right now, but I won't give up on you Adora!" Frustrated tears welled up in her eyes as she was at once moved and outraged at his remark. She stomped her foot angrily.  
  
"Just go!" She snapped. Bow walked to the window of her quarters, preparing to climb down the rope when Adora grabbed his cape. He turned to her in surprise. She pressed her lips to his. Hard. There was nothing gentle in that kiss, it was hard and quick. She pulled back.  
  
"Be careful, Bow." He grinned a cocksure smile, his lips tingling from her brief contact.  
  
"I will." His smile faded. "Adora, if we meet in battle for the freedom of our people, I will fight you." Adora smiled sadly and nodded.  
  
"I would expect no less my gentle warrior." He branded the vision of her into his mind so that he could always keep this moment in his heart. She was so pretty, hair tousled from sleep, lips swollen from his kisses. He sighed before disappearing out the window.  
  
Adora watched him go. As he left she shook the stardust from her eyes and began to dress. As she did so she felt herself slipping into the background of her mind and Onyx taking over. She knew she had to endure this. The first ones understood and agreed, the children were watching her. She was not as alone as she had thought. Briefly her mind entertained a vision of Bow bare-chested. Warmth arced through her. She grinned. Not alone at all. 


	17. Dismantle A Dream

Chapter 17: Dismantle a dream  
  
  
  
Hordack, Shadow Weaver and Force Captain Catra were assembled and waiting in the throne room. Imp, a blue ball of bile and spite sat atop his masters shoulders, perking his ears up as the door slid open and Commanding General Onyx entered. Catra's jade eyes flared with angry heat and smoldering resentment as she watched her new commander approach the table she used to plan strategem and plot the destruction of Etheria.  
  
On the table a map of the Eastern hemisphere spread before them.  
  
Hordack snorted.  
  
"Your late commander; not an auspicious way to begin your conquest of a planet." . Adora knew that the rules defining their future relationship would be decided now. She would not submit to being his underling; she would accept only equality.  
  
Onyx smiled; a cold and grimly beautiful expression; the black leather she wore swallowing all color, making her skin exceedingly white, her lips a bright cherry red  
  
"And what would you know of conquest Hordack." Her voice was mocking, "you've had this planet in your grasp for a quarter century and have yet to subjugate her populace. Your incompetence is embarrassing."  
  
Catra's eyes widened in surprise a shocked giggle escaping her mouth before she could stifle it. Her gaze flew to Hordack, fearful of reprisal. He merely narrowed his eyes, opening his mouth as if to say something then closing it again. Shadow Weaver narrowed her luminous canary orbs to mere slits of menace as Hordack merely cleared his throat then gestured to the map.  
  
"We are contemplating our next attack. Suggestions." It was a command, not a question.  
  
Adora/Onyx approached the table, standing shoulder to shoulder with Catra and Shadow Weaver. She viewed the map carefully for a few seconds. Her stomach felt as if it were dropping, her ears began ringing.  
  
This was it.  
  
There was no turning back now. It seemed as if someone else was speaking and using her voice but she knew it was her. An ebony leather encased finger traced a path over the names of the places on the map as she spoke.  
  
"Gunthor, Dwyllan, and Rendwoll are already ours," she said pointing to the three villages east of the whispering woods, "the main areas of resistance are Chill Castle to the North, that's a relatively sparsely populated area- but highly fortified; lets focus on knocking out Brightmoon and Mystacor. The downside is that we have to circle around the Whispering Woods to get to the towns that surround these two kingdoms," she looked up to make sure they were all listening. They appeared enthralled, Onyx shook off a feeling of discomfort, swallowing back bile caused by the knowledge that she was dismantling everything she worked so hard to gain for five years. A bitter truth is that it is so much easier to tear something down than build something up.  
  
"The woods do not allow us to penetrate them, I realize you have had some success toward the middle of the forest along that thin stretch of woodland blocking your access to Thaymoore but that is only because the woods are so thin there. A large force could never move through them without rousing the trees but they do allow in rebels, however we have the power necessary to blockade the forest- at least near the towns. We need to have troops tear up the access roads to the woods and burn the surrounding land creating a clearing where the troopers can see if anyone goes in or anyone comes out. They need orders to shoot on sight any that do, then confiscate their belongings, food, weapons, anything that may appear to be of value to the rebel cause and throw them in jail."  
  
"If we shoot them why do we need to incarcerate them, hmmm?" Catra questioned, arching one delicate ebony brow.  
  
"We shoot to stun, not kill. A dead slave is a lost investment. There is no profit in killing." She looked to Hordack who nodded his approval.  
  
"We need to take the villages surrounding the two kingdoms at the heart of Rebel power. We should be able to do so if we focus the bulk of our forces on one town at a time. Our land forces and battle tanks can circle up from the south of Brightmoon and take the city of Strathmoore in a day, prior to the engagement of land forces we can send a squad of batniks to panic the city. A panicing mob full of fear is easy to control and slow to organize against us. The rebels are still stunned from losing me- they won't be there to aid the city. After we control it we move to Thaymoor. That is where the real battle will take place. We will put down any opposition we encounter and make public examples of those who oppose us."  
  
"What if we do encounter Rebels?" Hordack questioned. Onyx shrugged.  
  
"We take them out."  
  
"Will you kill your old friends?" Onyx shuddered.  
  
"I am done killing. I will use the prodders, they emit enough voltage to render unconscious any who stand against me."  
  
"And howwww will you make them examples, hmmm," Catra purred softly, "are you just going to waggle your finger at them and tell them the Horde is in charge and send them home?"  
  
"No." Onyx whispered.  
  
"Then tell us, Adora," Shadow Weaver rasped, "how will you make examples of these rebels."  
  
"Those who are captured fighting us will line the roads outside of the town. They will be staked in neat little rows, stripped of all but their most basic of garments and left in the hot sun of the day and chilling winds of the night. Troopers, as I said, will patrol the roads between towns. Any person caught giving aid to the rebels will be sent swiftly to the mines. After three days of enduring the elements those left alive will be chained together and paraded through town as added humiliation and a warning to the people left that the horde does not tolerate civil unrest. They will then become slaves of the Horde and shipped off planet."  
  
"Ingenuous." Hordack breathed. "Your evil has undone me. You will raise fear to a new level. You are indeed home, my child." His voice seemed to quiver with emotion. Her skin crawled.  
  
"I am not evil, I merely desire unity." Her voice rang harshly, with her sincerity. " I tried to have my people united under freedoms banner. They did not want it. So They will be united- under slavery. It is what they wish as well."  
  
"Adora, I am ecstatic that you have returned to us, but you must know I am evil and I will not go gently on these people just because you have an…odd affection for them."  
  
"I will not harm the innocent. I will conquer this world as promised," here she straightened, planting hands on hips, tossing her golden hair over a slim, delicate shoulder, "but I only joined you to ensure that no more innocents will be harmed. I will see this thing done. I will manipulate, I will lie, I will fight when I need to and scheme as I must to win but I will not do harm." Catra smirked as Hordack chuckled maliciously, his pose mirroring Onyx's.  
  
"Adora we are in the business of doing harm. You can lie to others but do not delude yourself." Her back stiff with pride she spoke through teeth clenched in anger.  
  
"If I delude myself that is not your concern. They are my delusions. All you need is results. Now if you will excuse me I will organize the troops. By the way, if you don't want any more unwanted rebel visitors, block off the river beneath this room. Catra," she snapped, "you're with me." She walked with stealthy grace as she left. Catra moved to follow her when Hordack barked across the room.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
"Wait." Catra turned to gaze in inquiry, but Adora merely stopped, turning an ear toward their master but otherwise remaining defiantly facing the door. "Take Imp with you. He will be your liaison with me."  
  
  
  
"I don't need a liaison, I am the commanding General."  
  
"Take him anyway. That's an order. He will update me on your progress so that you won't have to bother." She stayed where she was for so long that Catra was sure she was going to defy Hordack's command- Catra hoped she would, but finally she gave a curt nod and the little blue pestilence flew over to them."  
  
"This is gonna be loads of fun!" Imp said, his annoying little laugh grating a high pitched path of revulsion across Catra's spine. The three of them left the throne room. Shadow Weaver floated to her masters side.  
  
"Ohh, Hordack," she rasped, "you were too lenient on her. She was rude at best and insulting at the worst. She should be punished." Hordack waved his hand at her.  
  
"Don't tell me how to run my army, did you hear her, she is truly one of us now!" He began to laugh.  
  
"A word of caution milord, you should not trust her so quickly. Your affection for her could be your undoing." Hordack did not deny her accusation of affection.  
  
"Do you sense that she is lying, Shadow Weaver, do you sense any weakening in her resolve?"  
  
"No, Lord Hordack, if anything she is stronger now than ever. She really believes what she says. That she is doing this for the good of her people."  
  
"Then I will not worry."  
  
"This softness in you… it troubles me."  
  
"There is no softness in me Weaver," he snapped, his dark eyes flashing, "simply satisfaction. This is the task I raised her for. The task I groomed her for since she was young. And now she has returned to me. I intend to corrupt her and make her heart as dark as- yours." He began laughing insanely. Shadow Weaver said nothing. Merely watching him with eyes devoid of humor or warmth.  
  
"Be gone witch." Hordack snapped when she refused to join him in his little joke. "Havn't you got spells to cast or something.?"  
  
Without a word Shadow Weaver raised her bony arms, flames swiftly engulfed her in a fiery embrace until she was a roaring inferno of magical fire with no heat; she tore a blazing path out of the throne room, across the horizon of the fright zone, to Horror Hall. Her home of darkness.  
  
Hordack watched her go disgruntled. That stupid witch. Leave it to her sour grapes to ruin his good mood. She was just upset because his faith had done what her Magic could not. Return Adora to him. He smiled thinking about his protégé. Adora- no, Onyx was truly a marvel. He couldn't wait to see what she came up with. 


	18. Woman Scorned- An unlikely Ally

Chapter18; Woman scorned- an unlikely ally  
  
  
  
Onyx was being careless, she knew. But she didn't care. She had confidence in herself and in her abilities. The day had been spent giving orders and preparing to mobilize a fourth of Hordack's ground forces tomorrow. She was disgusted to learn the robots were still being equipped with substandard programming. Their hard drives were three years out of date when she had left the Horde five years ago!  
  
She recalled a rather unpleasant scene with Hordack.  
  
"It's no wonder the rebels constantly defeat you, humiliating you in the process. Your weapons are below standard, your robotic engineering team is illiterate and the programming is sub-par! Couldn't you at least upgrade the aiming capabilities on the robots so that their A.T.H. is above twenty percent?" Onyx was marching at her masters heels, matching him stride for stride, her voice ringing with indignation.  
  
"Horde Prime does not feel it necessary to upgrade the accuracy to hit programming. The new system would be far too costly- especially-" and here he grimaced as if tasting something wretched, "since the life expectancy of a robot on Etheria is so short." Onyx heaved a frustrated sigh.  
  
"How about obtaining a supply of photon rifles and M.D.G.'s?" Hordack stopped, looking at her incredulously as she drew up to his side. Then he guffawed. It was disgusting listening to him snort as he laughed.  
  
"Do you think this is Eternia? Etheria just isn't worth the expense- at least not according to my brother." His eyes pinched together and bitterness filled his voice, "Horde Prime would never approve even one crate of matter destabilizers, much less enough grenades to be of any use to us. Sorry Adora but you'll just have to make do."  
  
"Dammit Hordack," Onyx hissed through clenched teeth, "I made do for five years, I did not rejoin the Horde to make do!" He squinted narrowly at her.  
  
"No, you rejoined so you could murder one of my henchmen and you betrayed your people's champion to do so." He watched her flinch and smiled.  
  
"It wasn't murder," she whispered, "It was combat." Her voice rose in strength as she turned her dark regard to Hordacks beady little orbs, "he had a better chance than the children he killed now didn't he." Hordack grunted.  
  
"If you don't feel up to this-"  
  
"It's not me who's not up to this!" She snapped, "It's your forces. If I fail it won't be my fault-"  
  
"But you will be blamed." He reminded her. Onyx seethed, her jaw clenched as she tried to restrain her frustrated anger.  
  
"Damned either way, is that it?" She demanded. Hordack smiled grotesquely.  
  
  
  
"Welcome to the club my dear." She stormed off angrily. Spirit was in the Whispering woods and she felt like venting her angst. She decided to scope out the terrain surrounding Strathmoore. At least that was the excuse she gave. She merely wanted to be away from the fright zone ,for a little while at least.  
  
She sat atop her Horde-steed as she circled the town of Strathmoore. It would be easy enough to take. The rebels were in an uproar. They were organizing fast but they would not be in time to save Strathmoore.  
  
No. The rebellion would be shocked by the spectacle she would leave for them. She knew that people would die. It was inevitable. It was war. She would put the bodies to use. The people who bled for Etheria tomorrow would not die in vain. They would serve to strengthen the resolve of the rebels and send hundreds running in rage to join them. Strathmoore was a large city. It would be a great coupe for the Horde. Strathmoore being so close to Brightmoon would be counting on it and the rebels for protection. But while the Horde attacked the city Shadow Weaver would be assaulting Brightmoon with the power of shriving.  
  
The Horde's dark mistress of magic could not hope to conquer it as Angella's powers were at their peak plus she had the added protection of the Crystal Castle but it would serve to distract the queen of Brightmoon from the hordes true objective.  
  
Adora carefully noted the half finished wall around the city, burning the details into her mind, the weak spots, the positions of the guards at the gates the smattering of outbuildings belonging to squatters. They would be the first casualties. A woman, back stooped with hard work and age straightened slowly at her approach, resting wearily on a rake she was using to gather hay into bundles before she wrapped it and squinting against the sun.  
  
"G'day, good woman, can I help you?" The woman questioned in a bright cheery voice. She backed up slightly as Adora's steed neared her. Her face went chalk white as the beast moved closer and she backed away in small stumbling steps from the grim and menacing specter of death.  
  
A voice cool and smooth like the waters of the sea flowed over the old woman's skin, a gentle chill resonating with danger and warning.  
  
"Be gone by nightfall. Wicked things approach." The woman could scarcely nod as she backed away in fear, tears falling copiously down her withered and leathery cheeks. Hate and rage rolled off the beast and he whinnied in response to the fear he smelled.  
  
Adora reigned him in sharply, taking one last, hard look at the free town of Strathmoore, then whirling him around, her job done, she gave the beast his lead.  
  
He flew over the terrain, his hooves rapacious as the tore at the earth beneath them, scarring her with ugly prints, gouged into the terra firma. Flames shot from his nostrils as it ran, the stench of hate strong in its sweat soaked skin, clinging to her clothes. She bit back the urge to gag, he thighs clenching the sides of the monster tightly as the jarring ride continued. She was riding along the edges of Spikeheart, the land of the trolls which skirted the Fright Zone when a blast of light energy sent her flying from her horse. The Horde steed continued on.  
  
Adora hit the earth with a jarring thud, her mask flew from her face landing several feet away, she somersaulted over the hard cold earth crying out as she heard a loud crack and pain shot through her left arm, she screamed once in fear and pain right before her head slammed into the ground.  
  
Everything went dark for a moment or two. She struggled to maintain her hold on consciousness. Blinking her eyes, she tried to move but her body refused to respond. Pain coursed through her in waves. Her left arm hung limply at an odd angle beneath her body. She knew she had pulled out from the socket. Her head was throbing angrily where she struck it and her temple burned and stung.  
  
Her right arm moved slowly upward to feel her head. Her fingertips came back bloody. She struggled to rise. Moving her head slowly she realized she'd landed near a tree. She began scooting herself over to the trunk, leaning against it. With her right hand she reached for a prodder at her hip, flicking it on, her gaze darting about frantically trying to see her attacker. She was gasping for air and at the same time struggling not to breathe too deep as her chest thrummed with knifelike agony.  
  
A figure in violet walked calmly towards her, carnation colored hair flowing behind her a trident clutched in two lavender gauntleted arms.  
  
"G-Glimmer." Adora wheezed. The princess of Brightmoon smirked down at her former leader.  
  
"All your fine talk, all your concern, all your words and years of friendship were a lie!" Adora tried to shake her head But Glimmer ignored her. "I trusted you! I believed in you. We all did! And you betrayed us." Her voice usually so full of compassion and love, dripped with hatred and venom. Hurt anger shone vividly in Glimmers blue eyes. "You were the best among us and you turned on us. You're a liar and I hate you! I won't let you hurt my people." Adora looked into Glimmers eyes, reading the resolve therein; she swallowed convulsively. She was in no condition to fight and she could not change into She-Ra and Glimmer was poised with a pointed weapon at her throat to kill her.  
  
"Glimmer…Glimmer, please… let me- let me explain."  
  
"Lies!" Glimmer half hissed, half shouted, " Why would I possibly want to hear any more of your filthy lies!"  
  
"Glimmer, I love the people of this planet. I am doing the best that I can to unify them!"  
  
"We won't be made slaves!" Glimmer shouted defiantly. Adora nodded weakly.  
  
"Exactly. Don't you see," Adora's voice burned with fevered intensity, trembling and unsteady with pain, "I was just like you five years ago, I believed that all we needed was faith in human nature, once everyone knew what they were fighting for they would all fight the Horde. But I was wrong." She laughed, a short barking noise devoid of humor, "The people are dull in their apathy. They don't care about freedom, they are too involved in their own petty squabbles or moldering old traditions to see the true enemy. I will make them see!"  
  
"And what about Justice huh! Or what's right! What about compassion, what about the death of our friends! What about mercy Adora Huh!" Adora moaned, pulling herself up away from the tree, gasping in pain.  
  
  
  
"The last time I showed someone mercy he killed five innocent children! Bled their life away into nothing because they meant nothing, not to him! Not to him; but they meant everything to me! They were the reason I fought so doggedly, so hard all those years even when in my deepest heart hope shriveled and died, I kept on- not for me, for them, for the children, for the innocent so they would not ever be forced to face the childhood I had- a bleak and empty one full of sadness and loneliness and pain! When that monster killed them I quit!"  
  
"So you would betray us all, working for a bigger monster and leading his armies against us!" Adora simply nodded.  
  
"You cold bitch! I looked up to you." Her voice lowered to a mere hiss of hate, "We should have done this the first day Adam brought you to the Whispering woods!"  
  
"Glimmer," Adora gasped, panic flaring in her eyes, "you don't want-"  
  
"Can it traitor! It doesn't matter what either of us wants! This is what must be done, I'm going to put you out of my misery once and for all." Hearing the viciousness echoing in Glimmers words, Adoras eyes turned to shards of ice. She tossed the prodder to the ground and wincing at the pain in her left shoulder she held her right arm out to the side, the left hung limply in front of her.  
  
"Kill me then." Her eyes never left the bile filled gaze of the princess. "I am so tired of hurting. Go on, do it! Think you I relish the task of giving orders to scum to enslave the people I love!" Her voice cracked, "make it quick Glimmer… we were close once. Don't make me suffer." A single tear wound a fiery path down her ivory cheek. Glimmer faltered as she watched it fall. She looked to the weapon pointing at Adora's heart as if seeing it for the first time.  
  
"I- Adora I-" a bolt of red slammed into Glimmers midsection sending her to the ground. Adora gazed in shock as she watched the princess of Brightmoon fall in a heap at her feet, the spear falling uselessly from her fingers.  
  
"Glimmer!" Adora cried. She fell to her knees beside her fallen friend. "Glimmer-"  
  
"Rowww, relax Adorrra, she's merely stunned. She'll be fine." Adora looked up to see Catra sauntering toward her, a stun blaster in her hand, a mean little grin stretching across her face.  
  
"What are you doing here?" Adora questioned, her voice sharp, warily watching as Catra holstered the blaster, walking to her side. The Cat woman, with surprisingly gentle hands reached down to help Adora to her feet.  
  
"I saw you leave the fright zone alone." She explained unapologetically, "I was sure you were going to betray us again. I wanted to see where you were going and who you were meeting."  
  
"And?" Adora asked warily, then she gasped in pained surprise, "what are you doing?!" She yelped as Catra grabbed her left arm.  
  
"Rowww, your shoulder's been dislocated, brace yourself against that tree." Adora did as she was instructed. Catra slammed her weight into Adora, pushing her arm back into the socket. Adora screamed in agony, as with a loud pop her arm fell back into place. Tentatively she shrugged her shoulder, wincing at the soreness.  
  
"Thank you." She whispered. Catra shrugged. "What do we do with her?" She asked gesturing to the sleeping Glimmer.  
  
"Leave her." Catra didn't question the order. She took Adora by the elbow and lead her to the Hover Claw she had ridden.  
  
"Rowww, you'll have to ride behind me and hang on tiiightly or you might fall off."  
  
"Catra," Adora asked, "why are you helping me?" Catra was quiet a moment.  
  
"I have always hated you, Hordack loves you; I did everything I could to please him for years- but nothing worked. He always preferrrrred you."  
  
"He doesn't love me," Adora whispered revolted, "I am merely a trophy to him. Hordack doesn't even know what love is!" Catra shrugged dismissively.  
  
"They are one and the same to him, he raised you himself. I was raised by Selatokkians, they are sentient telepathic tigers. They once belonged to an intergalactic circus. Hordack made them guardians of the Dark Jungle. He also made them my guardians. I was almost twelve years before I realized I was not a Selatokkian. My dam was very patient with me when I could not climb and run and jump as she could. Then one day Hordack came and he brought with his my mask. For the first time in my life I was able to hunt with my dam and my sirrrre. But now I had seen Hordack, it was he who gave me the gift of the mask so that I could be a large cat like my family. But I saw now that there were others like me and I wanted to know more of them."  
  
  
  
Adora regarded Catra with detached curiosity, she never thought to wonder about Catra and her life before they had met.  
  
"So you were just another one of Hordack's twisted little psychological experiments?" Pain flared anew in Catra's green eyes, Adora saw a spark of vulnerability there she had never seen before. Catra nodded and looked away, her dark hair falling over her face.  
  
"So Hordack took me from my family, placing me in a squadron where I learned to be a hordeswoman." She sighed a soft sound, Adora was shocked to feel her heart responding with compassion to the longing in Catra's voice.  
  
"But I never fit in. I tried going home to the Selatokkians. But I no longer fit therrrre eitherrrr." She was silent a moment and Adora thought she was done. She shifted her weight so she could sit comfortably on the Hover Claw, Catra climbed on, handing Adora a helmet. Adora thought about what Catra said but was a little confused as to how it all had anything to do with Catra helping her. Then the Cat woman spoke again, her voice wry and self deriding and yet filled with a vulnerable yearning for something undefined.  
  
"You are as confused as me. And purrrrhaps just as alone. Neither of us is quite sure who we arrre any morrrre." Adora was silent the ride back as was Catra. Perhaps regretting that she had revealed so much about herself. Adora hurt inside, and for the first time in a while it was not for herself, she hurt for Catra, she was lonely. It was no wonder she was such a bitter and meanspirited person. She didn't know where she fit, she had no definition of her being other than her job as force captain. No friends, no family other than the twisted one Hordack made for her. She decided to see what she could find out in the records about Catra's life, who her parents were, where she came from. If she could use Catra's loneliness to turn her against Hordack, she would prove an invaluable ally. 


	19. Freedom's Twilight

Chapter19; Freedoms Twilight  
  
  
  
Dawn split the sky, twin halves of vibrant living color, one crimson, the other black. Blood and death, a mirror of what was to come.  
  
It was finished by noon.  
  
  
  
On stealthy wings slicing through the air with a sharp whistling sound, none were prepared for the eight batniks flying in low over the slumbering town. Flash bombs were dropped and detonated, illuminating the village with sporadic bursts of brilliant golden light; excruciatingly loud squealing screams emitting as each one exploded. People, half dazed with sleep, panicking, raced from their homes, grabbing their children and fleeing for the safety of the Whispering woods. They found instead a large army of Horde forces blocking their only exit. A line of battle tanks commanded by Scorpia between the path to the woods and them.  
  
The braver ones grabbed what weapons they could, some had blasters but most were armed with nothing more than a wooden pitchfork, a wood axe, the stray meat cleaver, poles used for holding up shop shades during the heat of the day. Some ran right into the ranks of the Horde hoping to burst through to the other side. These were hopes in vain, the Horde blotted the horizon like a dark swarm of angry ants, they consumed any entering their ranks. Robots shooting red lasers into the panicked crowd, managed to systematically corral the villagers into dead end streets or small buildings. Some turned to run, only to find that sometime during the night their town had been surrounded by ground troops.  
  
  
  
Women cried out in fear and pain, the guards were not gentle as they herded the people like animals. Men roaring their fury quickly learned the futility of such meaningless gestures of defiance with swift hard blows to the head or thrust of blaster buttes to the stomach and skull. Children cried for their mothers, weeping in terror and confusion.  
  
She closed her eyes. Onyx could close her eyes but her ears rang with the screams of her people, screaming in anger, fear, shocked surprise, confusion and pain and horrified denial as their homes were destroyed; flames, licked a fiery path of greedy consumption in parts of the village. She supervised it all, hearing hope die all around her. It should have given her comfort.  
  
  
  
It did not.  
  
Worse were the resisters. Onyx stood in the midst of it all, a circle clear all around her as even her own troops feared her. Cold and and seemingly indifferent she watched grimly as the town was sacked, the meeting house burned to the ground, the people shepherded back and forth and the resisters "put down". They were few, totally outnumbered with no hope of winning yet they did not give up. Men, some young, some old, fought like warriors, screaming their defiance only to be brought down by the superior numbers and technology of the Horde. Women of all ages fought valiantly and futilely alongside their men, she saw a girl just beginning to blossom into womanhood, her face still rounded with the fat of youth, armed with a frying pan in each hand; she took out two soldiers, stomping them with her heel as they hit the dirt before moving on. Her blue dress swishing angrily as she dove into the fray.  
  
A soldier shot her point blank, as her eyes closed she began falling, drawing back his freeze ray he slammed it into her face, blood began pouring from her now broken nose, her head flopped back, her body turned slightly as she thudded to the ground. The soldier moved on. An older woman, throwing fruit and vegetables, pelting the troopers with unmitigated glee whitened as the girl fell. Abandoning the safety of her hiding place behind a market stall she moved to aid the fallen girl only to collapse, stunned, to the ground as a laser blast took her out mere feet from the woman-child. The sun rose higher in the sky, waves of heat mingling with the stench of sweat and fear and blood and death, the aroma musky and putrid. Sweat rolled off Onyx beneath her suit in fat salty drops as more people fell to the might of her forces and she watched, mute before mounting her beast.  
  
Numb to it all.  
  
Miles away in Horror Hall, on the peninsula south of the dark Jungle near the mud swamps, Shadow Weaver focused all her strength on maintaining the spell of shriving on Castle Brightmoon. Tendrils of sick green lightning ejaculated from her dark bony fingertips. They shot onto a scaled to size model of the kingdom of Brightmoon. In this manner her dark magiks assaulted the ward of protection Queen Angella projected over the real Brightmoon. It was called sympathetic magic. On a spiritual plane the forces of dark and light fought a fierce battle for dominance in the physical realm over Queen Angella's kingdom.  
  
Queen Angella maintained the castle without problem. Her guards keeping a wary eye on the horde troopers which lined the hill outside Brightmoon. She wondered briefly at Shadow Weavers ignorance. The dark sorceress had tried once before- rather unsuccessfully- to take the castle this way- and that was when Angella was at her weakest, during the eclipse of Etheria's three moons from which Brightmoons queen drew her power. Now though was the time of the new moon, her powers were at their peak. It took little effort to maintain the protective ward around her kingdom and castle.  
  
Hordack watched the battle progress happily from his throne on his view screen. No rebels came to the aid of Strathmoore. No She-Ra swooping down on her flying steed to save the day at the last minute. The day was his. And Commanding General Onyx sitting silently atop her steed watched it all through a dark mask which sat like an ebony shield between her and the horror she had wrought.  
  
When it was done Onyx dismounted and began moving through the city. Horde Troopers were searching the buildings in a sweeping path. They were a brutally organized onslaught of terror. This city would feel no release. Onyx stood in the village square as the survivors were brought before her. Bodies littered the field, some Horde, most not. As she passed the spot where the girl had fallen she nudged her with her toe. Brown hair that stopped at her neck, matted with the dirt and blood she lay in fanned slowly out from her face.  
  
She was dead. She must have choked on her own blood. Adora drew a Blaster from the holster on the hind side of her hip, their were gasps of fright from several villagers but it was not them who earned her wrath; it was her own troops. Her lips curling back in a vicious snarl, she fired ten shots and ten troopers fell at her feet, stunned into unconsciousness. She gestured to Mantenna, he stood in the background of it all holding aloft a long trident with the blue leathery head of his former comrade Leech. He moved swiftly through the crowd. Imp flew at his side.  
  
"Just you wait Adora," Imp was shouting in his annoyingly whiny little voice, "I'm going to tell Hordack what you did, and you're gonna be in soooo much trouble hehehe-" Onyx lifted her blaster and shot him. He fell with a thunk to the ground. She spared him not a thought as an incredulous- but ludicrously grinning Mantenna stepped up beside her. She took the trident from his hands and lifting her chin addressed the assemblage before her.  
  
"See this and remember this warning, members of the Horde. You know me. You know what I will do. You know the price of failure. On the floor of this city lies the body of a girl, not more than a child. She was stunned but then a trooper, one of your own, bludgeoned her unconscious body, causing an unnecessary death. Now ten of your kind have fallen with our enemies, recompense for her death. I tell you true, if the perpetrator of this vile deed is not dealt with by dawn tomorrow another ten of you will fall. And after this day, "she paused flooding her expression with menace and her voice with threat, "my stunner will be set permanently on kill." She had the entire crowds attention. "Look you now at the price for my displeasure!" She held up the trident with the head, waiting a few moments to allow her words to sink in, then, handing it over to Mantenna she turned her attention to the gaping prisoners.  
  
"You are all now the property of the Horde, you will be fitted with a metal collar that cannot be removed as a symbol of your servitude. If you fought me and my troops well then, I pity you, I truly do. You will be made an example of, a warning to every person who dares to raise a weapon to the Horde. Then you will be shipped off planet to become slaves on some other Horde occupied world. Those of you who surrendered to us," Here she smiled, an evil baring of white teeth, "I pity you more. You and your children and your children's children are all slaves. You will work from sunup to sundown finishing the wall around the city. You will not eat. You will not speak. You will not think anything except what I or your Horde Commander tells you to think. You will eat when we feed you, what we feed you. You will speak only when spoken to. Now thank me." She waited several heartbeats before drawing a prodder and flicking it on. It glowed with a malicious jade light.  
  
"Thank. Me." There was no mistaking the threat in her tone. Their came a chorus of mumbled thank you's. She grinned as if exultant. "Every night before you go to sleep you will thank your horde commander for sparing your life. You will thank me for ridding you of your wretched existence as a free person making you one with the noble Horde and you will thank Hordack for his tender mercy. If you forget, the village will be razed and the earth salted and your children taken to the Fright Zone to be raised as Horde Troopers." She snapped. There was stunned silence as the enormity of what had happened began to sink in and the people realized what life under the Horde would be like. Onyx however gave them no time to ponder their fate before putting them to work.  
  
"Now I want the women to begin undressing the fallen." There were murmurs and protests at the unusual command. "I gave an order and I expect it to be obeyed! Mantenna!"  
  
"Heeerrre Commanding Generalll." He saluted sharply awaiting her command.  
  
"Take out ten women at random and have a trooper stand with a blaster in their backs." There was the usual crying and screaming and soprano protests as ten women were pulled brutally from the crowd and forced to stand at attention with a gun at each of their backs.  
  
"If this ground is not cleared of the fallen and they are not stripped of all but their undergarments by midday then these women will join the fallen and ten more of you will be selected to take their place. Scorpia!" She called. The strange half insect half woman Hordesman stomped out of the crowd of troopers away from the line of battle tanks to stand before her mistress. "separate the children and take them to the schoolhouse, get the teacher and she will help you maintain order.  
  
  
  
"Aww, do I hafta', I mean kids n' me ,we jus' don' get along if ya' know what I mean-" Adora glared stonily down at her.  
  
"Just do it!" She screamed. Scorpia gulped, saluting smartly.  
  
"As you wish Commander!"  
  
Onyx spent the remainder of the afternoon supervising the troops staking out the survivors along the roads in neat little lines. Their wrists were bound to large metal stakes which were then driven into the ground high above their heads, then the feet were similarly tied and staked out spread eagled. Then a piece of hemp was staked on either side of their throats so as the simple act of swallowing would be a torment. When it was brought to her attention that some of those that had fallen were her own men she shrugged and ordered them staked out as well.  
  
She was having her men deliver the heads of the dead to all the towns in Etheria with a message to surrender to the Horde or suffer the fate of Strathmoore. She was hoping that fear of her and her forces would cause many towns to simply surrender, thereby avoiding a battle and this distasteful act. She realized many would view her actions as evil and heartless but the dead had no need of their heads.  
  
She did.  
  
It seemed that all her actions recently were one desperate act after another. She needed to induce reaction. Fear or rage, either suited her purposes. She secretly hoped that every town would do a Drile and give up all they had rather than be enslaved and join the rebellion in their fight for freedom but she doubted that would happen.  
  
The casualties were fewer than she had imagined, thirty-seven horde troopers were lost, seventeen villagers dead and fifty eight robots destroyed. There were a good two hundred stunned towns people who had fought her occupation rather than submit to it.  
  
The corpses of the fifty four dead were buried in a mass grave just outside of town, their heads now en route to the free towns and cities including the kingdoms of both Brightmoon and Mysticor. In three days those surviving staking would be led through the town in chains and then shipped to the mines or off planet. Grizzlor and Entraptra were seeing that each villager was fitted with a light weight steel collar. Entraptra designed them so they bonded to the skin and if you tried to move them or pull at them they would rip the surface of your epidermis until the polarity was reversed.  
  
Very painful. They served no other purpose than to dehumanize the population and break their spirits.  
  
The crowd gathered once again that evening before Adora and her troops.  
  
"This is Entraptra, your new leader. You will obey her." Onyx smiled meanly, "or I will be back. Now I will here your gratitude." The crowd began to chant dispiritedly.  
  
"Thank you Force Captain Entraptra for sparing our lives. Thank you Commanding General Onyx for ridding us of our wretched existence and making us a part of the Horde. Thank you Hordack for your tender mercy." Onyx smiled grimly down at Entraptra.  
  
"They are yours. Have them repeat the devotion for the next hour, then send them to their beds. I want that wall finished in seven days. I am to Thaymoore."  
  
"Thank you, Commanding General." Entraptra said sincerely bowing to her commander.  
  
Onyx wheeled around atop her mount, cantering out of town, the echo of the mindless chant haunting her as she departed. Her personal squad of twelve fresh from the academy troops followed her as the sun slowly disappeared over the Horizon. Onyx cantered between the line of men and women staked to the ground, practically naked, their moans accompanying the droning chorus her attention was caught by a man in a horde helmet staked between two rebels. She dismounted and walked to his side. She recognized him as the man that had killed the girl. She removed his helmet and stared into his black eyes. They were full of fear and hope. She gazed dispassionately on him.  
  
"Pleee….pleeeeeasse, hep maaa." She stood, gesturing to a trooper. One moved to her side immediately.  
  
"I want you to be sure to give every prisoner here a drink of water, once in the morning and again in the evening." The trooper nodded.  
  
"It will be done Commander."  
  
"But not him."  
  
"As you wish." The trooper saluted, scurrying off at her nod. Onyx moved to mount the Horde steed. She did not look back as she heard the mans loud hopeless wail. She did not pay heed as she heard him begin weeping piteously. She rode onward to join her army, they had left an hour before sunset on the march toward Thaymoore. It was there, she was sure she would encounter Rebel resistance, it was there she knew her resolve would be tested. It was there her name would become hated and from there her legend would spread across the world a synonym for terror. 


	20. Final defense of the Fallen

Chapter 20; The Final defense of the fallen  
  
  
  
"Glimmer, you must understand, Adora will never betray us in her heart. She has joined the Horde but in her mind she is still fighting for the same thing she always has.  
  
  
  
The unification and freedom of her people." Angella's voice was calm belying the stormy expression of rage on her daughter's face.  
  
"How can you say that mother!" Glimmer spat, pacing angrily, her hands trembling with anger, "she works for our enemy, she betrayed She-Ra, we have no idea how to contact her or help her, our scouts report Horde troops have destroyed all access roads to the whispering woods, effectively cutting them off from any town or village and who knows what else she'll do!"  
  
"That is why her last order as our leader was to disband the rebel camps in the woods and spread our forces outward, tendrils of freedom crossing the world. Glimmer, Adora is fighting apathy, this foe is much more difficult to defeat than the horde."  
  
"Does she expect thanks?" Glimmer demanded incredulous. Angella shook her head sadly.  
  
"Exactly the opposite. She has fought for five years nonstop to rouse the people. She endured the death of Mermista, the capture of her friend Loni, and the loss of Perfuma. When Leech killed those children she realized she could not keep up the fight without their help. Disillusioned by the people she has put so much faith in she is now doing the only thing she can to rouse them. She is conquering them." Glimmer was silent a moment.  
  
"Yes she's been through a lot but you act as if she endured those things alone. As if she was the only one to suffer." Her voice was quiet, tinged with sorrow. Angella sighed deeply, moving to her daughters side. She placed two loving arms around her daughters neck, drawing her into a tender embrace. Glimmer nestled her head into her mothers neck. She always felt so secure with her. Angella was more than simply a mother and queen, she was Glimmer's best friend.  
  
"Daughter, you and I know the masses need a ruler. They need someone to lead them, to teach them, to rule them. We were born to royalty. We understand the burden of that is to take responsibility for the safety of people as a whole because as a whole people cannot do these things for themselves. Either they can not or they simply choose not to. Most are born simply to follow, it doesn't matter if a leader is good or evil, they simply follow blindly. We hope that each leader will be a just and wise and benevolent ruler but it is not always so." Glimmer's brow furrowed.  
  
"What are you getting at mother?" She questioned, drawing away. Angella smiled sadly, cupping her daughters smooth cheek in her palm.  
  
"Adora, though born to royalty somehow was never taught this. She had a faith in humanity, in the people as a whole, many felt that and were thus drawn to her. She believed that they would rise up and claim their lives as their own. Now, she has realized that in order for people to appreciate the gift they've been given in freedom, they need to lose it.  
  
"But what of us mother? What of Bow and Peekablue and Madame and all the other rebels. We have taken the reins of our lives in our own hands, we value our freedom, should we just toss it aside so that others can learn the value for themselves?" Glimmer's eyes were bright with indignant confusion. Angella was very proud of her daughter, she seemed so mature, so different then she had been before. Angella felt a bit guilty. She felt Glimmer may have been acting so immature because Angella did not give her enough responsibility.  
  
Since she had taken command of her own troops she seemed so much more self possessed and adult. Glimmer may have been acting the part of spoiled princess because she felt that was what was expected of her. After all, Angella had a well defined roll as Queen of Brightmoon and Adora took over the role of rebel leader shortly after her defection from the horde and She- Ra rebel champion soon after. Glimmer was left without the surety of her place and now here she was actually struggling to understand one of the saddest truths of human nature.  
  
Angella was saddened at her fast fading innocence but realized in these times innocence was more of a detriment to survival. Gently with an aching heart Angella urged her daughter on to discovery.  
  
"As a ruler I fight the apathy of my people every day. But I am merely responsible for Brightmoon. Adora has assigned herself responsibility for all of Etheria." Glimmer pulled back angrily.  
  
"That doesn't make any sense. Adora is helping no one." Angella laughed softly at her daughter's disgruntlement. Glimmer appeared lost in thought.  
  
  
  
"I bet she would not be so angry if Perfuma were still here." It was two years since the capture of the maiden of the flowers and the subsequent death of Mermista. Adora, for some unknown reason blamed herself for their loss, especially Mermista's, even though She-Ra lead the team sent to rescue Perfuma and not Adora.  
  
  
  
Octavia, one of Hordack's more gruesome tentacular generals, in a raid against the Crystal falls, though defeated from the water easily by Mermista and her water powers, captured Perfuma on the shores, stealing her away to the island of Misery, a land of perpetual darkness where the sun never shone as the island was inside a dead volcano in the Growling Sea. She-Ra and Mermista left the Crystal falls soon after the raid.  
  
  
  
The creatures of the Growling sea told Mermista where Octavia had taken Perfuma and the Mermaid and Princess of Power set off to rescue her. Mermista went because she felt responsible for Perfuma's capture. On the way there as they approached the dead volcano riding Enchanta, Mermista's giant flying swan, Octavia began a laser assault aimed at the Swan and her riders. Enchanta was stunned, as Mermista attempted to guide the beast down Troopers on sky sleds attacked from behind and since they were helpless to out maneuver them She-Ra leapt from Enchanta's plummeting back to one of the sled's. She quickly and easily took out the troopers just in time to see Enchanta plow into the side of the volcano.  
  
Octavia had fired a freeze ray, freezing the right side of Enchanta, throwing her off balance. Valiantly the mermaid woman struggled to guide her steed, refusing to abandon her flying friend to her fate. By the time She-Ra got to her friend's side it was too late. Mermista's back had snapped in two places and she was dead. Enchanta as well. Enraged, She-Ra swam beneath the volcano to the island and found the Horde base inside but no sign of either Perfuma or Octavia. She sank the island beneath the sea. No one was sure how many horde troops were lost beneath the waves. As Glimmer looked back in retrospect she realized Adora had hardened herself after that. She drove herself harder, worked longer and seemed to feel less.  
  
When the Princess of Power returned to the woods Octavia had already taken Crystal falls as her own. Though She-Ra stormed the falls in an attempt to find Perfuma she could not find her friend. Octavia was close mouthed about her whereabouts but promised she would not be harmed as long as the rebels stayed out of the Crystal falls. It was now three years since that horrible day. But not a day went by that Glimmer didn't think of her lost friends. But it only served to strengthen her resolve not to give in!  
  
"I just don't understand her, mother. She was so sincere, as if she believed she was doing the right thing." Angella moved away from her daughter to peer out the window.  
  
"Glimmer let me tell you a story, one hundred years ago Brightmoon was a land of darkness ruled by a tyrant. Your Great-great grandfather tried rousing the people from their stupor, he tried to make the common man rise up against the tyrant and fight to be free." Glimmers eyes were wide, she had never heard this piece of history before.  
  
"Did he succeed?" She questioned eagerly already dreaming of what he'd have looked like and how she was like him. Her elation was swept away as her mother shook her head somberly.  
  
"He was killed, as were his band of freedom fighters. His father, a baron at the time was so enraged at this that he took his own men breaking his oath to the tyrant who ruled over him. They seized this castle, killing the tyrant-king and those who served him, in the wake of your ancestor's army they left a trail of burned towns and dead villagers. Your Great grandfather took possession of the crown and led Brightmoon into a time of peace and prosperity, but he never forgot that though the tyrant killed his son it was the peoples apathy that enabled him to do so. He then took on the task of educating the people, making them aware of themselves and the world and the price of freedom. He was a wise man. He understood that ignorant people are easily led and hard to stir to action." Glimmer thought for a moment realizing what her mother was saying.  
  
"So Adora is right?"  
  
"She's not wrong." Angella responded, "she could easily step aside, leaving Etheria to its fate and we would all eventually fall under the dominion of the horde. After a century or two we might decide to rise up as a people but you and I and our friends would not live to see it. Adora however, is not willing to allow that to happen. Her sense of duty will not allow her to step aside. She is speeding up the process and giving the people a focus for their rage. Herself."  
  
Just then three guards entered the room, a Horde trooper calmly walking between them.  
  
"My queen." The lead guard whispered as he fell reverently to one knee, the hordesman fell to the ground with him. Angella's eyes sharpened as she took in the sight of a trooper standing docilely between two of her soldiers, he was minus a helmet and carried a sack in his hands.  
  
"What is this?" Angella questioned, her wings fanning lightly in agitation as her daughter moved to stand beside her.  
  
"A message, my queen, one I think you should here." The soldier responded, head bowed.  
  
"You have a message for me hordesman?" She questioned. The trooper stood, pulling a head from the sack he carried, tossing it at her feet. Glimmer gasped in horror, Angella cringed away in revulsion, shock etched across both women's features.  
  
  
  
"Commanding General Onyx demands your surrender." He spat, "she swears none will be harmed if they surrender to the Horde. This," he said, gesturing to the bloody, smelly object on the floor, "is the fate of all who resist us. Surrender now, or suffer the same fate as Strathmoore."  
  
"Oh Goddess!" Angella gasped in horror.  
  
"Strathmoore!" Glimmer cried. The man smiled at their surprise.  
  
"Strathmoore belongs to the Horde now, soon the other villages surrounding Brightmoon will fall as well, then we will concentrate on your home. My lady demands a response." The trooper stood there proud at the horror he had created. Angella's eyes went frosty, she rose to her full height, staring down at the toad before her. She had failed her people. Shadow Weaver's spell had been a distraction, the troops outside of Brightmoon a diversion from the Horde's true purpose. The head on the floor was one of her own! Rage roared through her blood. Pulling a knife from her boot she walked down the dais, separating her from the trooper, her soldiers seizing him on either side, immobilizing him.  
  
"Your lady, demands a response?" She hissed. "Then I will give her one!" Glimmer watched stunned speechless as her mother, the Queen of Brightmoon cut the troopers tongue from his mouth. His screams echoing loudly through the throne room, before cutting off to an agonized gurgle. Glimmer was shocked as her mother had the man clutch his own tongue in his hand. Her beautifully, elegantly manicured fingers dripping crimson with his blood. Her voice was ice in the echoing chamber.  
  
"Take him out of my city and leave him in the road. He has my response!" She spat.  
  
"Mother!" Glimmer gasped. Angella whipped angry blue eyes around to her daughter.  
  
"She has given the people a focus for their rage. She is succeeding." Angella ground from between clenched teeth. "Go to Spikeheart, ready you rebels, have them prepare for assault. You must not attack directly, your forces are too small for that. You must be the dog nipping at their heels."  
  
"Mother?" Glimmer questioned.  
  
"You will take them out one by one as they sleep, as they relieve themselves, you will take their scouts and hit their foodstuffs, their drinks, steal their stores of food from the towns they will hit before they get there. Your job Glimmer is to go behind them, get more recruits, believe me, you'll find them, see what she's doing, the results of her passing and take out as many troops and robots as you can."  
  
"You can count on me mother. What are you going to do?" Glimmer asked. Her mother had never looked more imposing or regal than she did now.  
  
"I am going to do what a ruler does. Lead my army into a war to protect and defend my people. She will head for Thaymoore next, if she's not already there."  
  
"Everything is different now. Isn't it." Glimmer stated. Her voice was hesitant as if fearful. Angella nodded grimly.  
  
"It is. The battle for Etheria is in earnest now. Her fate is upon her people now. I pray we can keep her alive."  
  
Glimmer left the palace, she flew. The moon was new and her powers were at their fullest, by the end of the month her flying powers would have faded but now she had them, they were needed and so she used them. Her heart beat savagely in her breast as she saw in the distance the light of thousands of campfires. Her mother was right. The war was indeed heating up. She wondered silently if they would make it safely through the long dark ahead of them. Whatever happened she muttered fiercely to herself, she would not go down without a fight. None of them would.  
  
One way or another, Glimmer knew, this was the beginning of the end. 


End file.
